AND  lEUQIOl^ 


■fHOMAS  WAITON  GALLUWAY 


/ 

THE  USE  OF  MOTIVES 


THE  USE  OF  MOTIVES 

IN  TEACHING  MORALS 
AND  RELIGION 


THOMAS  WALTON  GALLOWAY,  Ph.D.,  Litt.D. 

\    1 

Professor  of  Zoology,  Beloit  College 


AUTHOR  OF 


"  Text-Book  of  Zoology'* 

*' Biology  of  Sex  for  Parents  and  Teachers" 

"  Reproduction,"  etc. 


J  J    i    J  i     J 


THE  PILGRIM  PRESS 

BOSTON  CHICAGO 


0-3 


Copyright  1917 
Bt  frank  M.  SHELDON 


THE  PILGRIM  PRESS 
BOSTON 


To  the 

REVEREND  JAMES  WALTON  McDONALD 

Inspiring  pastor  of  a  working  church,  with  a  genius  for  organization; 

A  preacher,  with  a  sure  instinct  for  fundamentals; 

A  Christian  statesman;  a  loyal  friend;  and  a  modest  man; 

This  study  in  the  methods  of  the  growth  of  the  Spirit 

Is  affectionately  dedicated. 


CONTENTS 

PAGES 

Chapter  I.    Educational  Methods  in  Religious  Education. 

1.  The  meaning  of  pedagogy.  2.  Is  pedagogy  1 
applicable  to  religion  and  the  things  of  the  spirit? 
3.  The  two  factors  in  teaching.  4.  The  proper  rela- 
tion of  these  two  factors  in  education.  5.  Education 
and  evangelism.  6.  A  crying  need  of  better  methods. 
7.  Summary 

Chapter  II.  Some  Principles  Accepted  in  General 
Education  Which  Must  be  Applied  in  Religious 
Education 17 

1.  Introduction.  2.  The  unity  of  human  per- 
sonality; and  its  corollaries.  3.  Good  teaching 
always  involves  getting  from  the  pupil  a  complete 
mental  reaction  to  truth.  4.  The  self-activity  of  the 
pupil  is  absolutely  essential  in  moral  and  religious 
education.  5.  The  pupil's  interest  is  the  surest  road 
to  self -activity.  6.  The  natural  instincts,  impulses 
and  motives  should  render  their  service.  7.  Per- 
sonal satisfaction  is  the  potent  agency  in  all  educa- 
tion. 8.  There  must  be  the  fullest  possible  grading  of 
all  that  concerns  moral  and  religious  instruction. 
9.  We  must  recognize  that  all  education,  and  in 
particular  moral  and  religious  education,  is  in  a 
tentative  and  experimental  stage. 

Chapter  III.  Some  Essential  Natural  Elements  in 
Education 27 

1.  Personality  and  environment.  2.  Adaptation, 
or  the  adjustment  of  personality  to  the  environment. 


405444 


viii  Contents 

PAOK 

3.  The  place  of  personality  in  life  and  education. 

4.  The  beginnings  of  personality.  5.  The  enrich- 
ment of  the  elements  of  personality.  6.  Structure 
of  mature  personahty.  7.  Choice  is  the  critical 
thing  in  personality.  8.  Two  chief  ways  of  influenc- 
ing choice.  9.  Training  choice  by  impression.  10. 
Training  choice  through  expression.  11.  Real  moral 
teaching  involves  both  impression  and  expression. 
12.  Results  of  impression  and  expression  on  the 
other  internal  quaUties 


Chapter  IV.     The  Principle  of  Motivation  in  Education.      55 

1.  The  impelling  nature  of  desires  in  life.  2.  These 
natural  impulses  and  desires  are  legitimate.  3.  The 
attitude  of  the  educator  toward  these  desires.  4. 
The  meaning  of  motivation.  5.  Relation  of  "motiva- 
tion "  to  some  other  watchwords  of  the  teacher. 

6.  The  two-fold  test  of  the  value  of  a  natural  impulse. 

7.  An  enumeration  of  some  of  the  principal  impulses, 
instincts  and  desires  that  furnish  motives  in  life. 

8.  Application  of  motivation  in  general  education 

Chapter  V.    Motivation  in  Sunday-school  Teaching.  71 

1.  Of  what  importance  to  the  Sunday  schools  is  this 
search  for  motives?  2.  The  impulses  and  religious 
education.  3.  The  applicability  of  motivation  to 
moral  and  religious  education.  4.  Some  practical 
reasons  why  an  appeal  to  the  natural  motives  of  the 
child  is  necessary  in  Sunday  schools.  5.  The  use 
of  motives  is  especially  necessary  because  of  the 
limited  opportunity  of  the  Sunday-school  teacher. 
6.  The  use  of  motives  is  peculiarly  necessary  in 
Sunday  school  because  of  the  artificiality  of  much  of 
our  moral  and  religious  teaching 


Contents  ix 


PAOB 


Chapter  VI.    AStudy  of  the  Natural  Motives 81 

1.  Introduction:  Shortcomings  of  our  present 
inducements.  2.  Vague  motives;  their  weakness. 
3.  Low  motives;  their  weakness.  4.  Appeals  too 
lofty  or  too  remote.  5.  Summary  of  the  instinctive 
elements  to  which  we  may  appeal 


Chapter  VII.    Motivation  in  the  Instructional  Side  of 
Sunday-school  Work 93 

1.  The  two  aspects  of  education:  instruction  and 
expression.  2.  The  pupil's  part  in  impression: 
attention.  3.  Motivation  of  attention.  4.  Peculiar  . 
value  of  receptiveness  in  moral  and  religious  educa- 
tion. 5.  The  religious  effect  of  partial  reception  of 
truth.  6.  The  effect  of  proper  motivation  upon 
the  degree  and  quality  of  reception.  7.  Sunday- 
school  work  has  been  chiefly  instructional;  but 
even  this  has  not  been  well  motivated.  8.  Natural 
discrepancy  between  child  motives  and  adult  mo- 
tives. 9.  Our  specific  task.  10.  Some  impulses 
that  may  furnish  motives  for  learning 

Chapter  VIII.    Motivating  the  Expressive  Side  of  Sun- 
day-school Work Ill 

1.  Summary.  2.  The  greater  meaning  of  ex- 
pression in  education.  3.  Education  of  choice  is 
the  heart  of  moral  and  religious  education.  4.  More 
important  to  motivate  expression  then  impression. 
5.  Superior  motivation  possible  in  expression.  6. 
Essential  to  find  right  motives  in  educating  by  ex- 
pression. 7.  Some  of  the  natural  impulses  which 
may  serve  as  motives  for  expression 


X  Contents 

Chapter  IX.    Certain  Principles  to  Guide  the  Teacher 
inhis  Appeal  to  Motives 125 

1.  Review  of  the  natural  motives.  2.  Selection 
of  appropriate  motives.  3.  Egoistic  impulses  arise 
early.  4.  Later  origin  of  the  unselfish  motives. 
5.  How  reconcile  these?  6.  Legitimate  use  of  the 
self-seeking  impulses.  7.  What  we  most  need  to 
learn.  8.  The  Sunday-school  dilemma.  9.  The 
upward-looking  impulses.  10.  Superiority  of  natural 
over  artificial  appeals.     11.  Summary 

Chapter  X.    Forms  of  Expressive   Work    Suitable  to 
Sunday  Schools 137 

1.  Review  of  the  principle  of  expressional  work. 

2.  Grades  of  expressional  work  in  the  Sunday  school. 

3.  Forms  of  hand- work  suitable  to  the  Sunday 
school.  4.  Summary:  The  service  that  hand-work 
renders 

Chapter  XI.    Forms  of  Expressive  Work:    Representa- 
tion  149 

1.  The  essential  nature  of  this  form  of  expression. 

2.  The  dramatic  and  play  instincts  in  the  child. 

3.  The  qualities  on  which  these  instincts  depend 
and  the  states  to  which  they  minister.  4.  The  use 
of  this  in  Sunday  school.  5.  Forms  of  biblical 
representation.  6.  Summary  of  the  educational 
value  of  the  drama  in  Sunday-school  work.  7.  Wor- 
ship as  an  expressive  activity  .  |g 

Chapter  XII.    Forms  of  Expression:  Original  Personal 
Behavior 163 

1.  Introduction.  2.  Furnishing  motives  for  con- 
duct, or  practise  in  righteousness.    3.  An  illustra- 


Contents  xi 

tion:  giving.  4.  The  task.  5.  The  possibilities. 
6.  Some  dangers.  7.  Some  methods.  8.  Motiva- 
tion of  right  conduct  through  sympathy,  a  desire  to 
serve,  and  kindred  quaHties  —  coupled  with  desire 
for  approval.  9.  Use  of  the  quality  of  chivalry  in 
motivating  conduct.  10.  Appeal  to  the  spirit  of 
tractability  or  obedience  to  authority.  11.  Motiva- 
tion of  life  in  the  home.  12.  A  suggested  program 
of  graded  social  expression.     13.  Conclusion 


THE  USE  OF  MOTIVES 

IN  TEACHING  MORALS  AND  RELIGION 


CHAPTER  I 

EDUCATIONAL  METHODS   IN   RELIGIOUS 

EDUCATION 

1.     The  meaning  of  pedagogy. 

Pedagogy  merely  means  the  science  of  teaching. 
The  word  indicates  that  teaching  human  beings  may 
be  reduced  to  a  science.  This  impHes  that  results 
are  produced  by  definite  causes  in  personality  and 
character,  just  as  in  physics  and  chemistry  and 
medicine.  The  idea  is  that  in  education  one  must 
know  what  results  are  desired  and  what  elements  he 
has  to  work  with,  before  he  can  go  inteUigently  about 
finding  a  method  of  work. 

All  this  means  that  the  structure  of  human  per- 
sonality is  not  lawless,  but  is  definite  and  can  be  dis- 
covered by  study.  It  means  that  character  grows  and 
matures  in  an  orderly  and  natural,  rather  than  in  a 
haphazard,  way.  It  suggests  that  we  may,  if  we 
learn  how  personality  grows,  use  the  facts  we  have 
discovered  about  life  in  such  a  way  as  to  help  insure 
that  it  will  be  sound  and  right.    Pedagogy  says  that 


<     C  <          I  (  < 

c       t  *  ,    c  c  < 

C  €  ♦     C  (  t 

<  <           I  It 


•''''  ^2''''''-'         '''^^''XJse  of  Motives 

we  must  not  conclude,  because  the  human  mind,  or 
spirit,  is  complex  and  difficult  to  understand,  that  it 
is  therefore  without  order  and  is  to  be  trained  accord- 
ing to  our  impulse  and  whim. 

All  of  this  seems  commonplace  enough  to  a  modern 
student  of  education,  and  would  not  need  to  be 
restated  here  but  for  the  fact  that  there  is  still  a  good 
deal  of  antagonism  in  the  minds  of  some  religious 
people  because  more  and  more  emphasis  is  being 
placed  on  the  pedagogy  of  morals  and  religion.  They 
feel  that  in  some  way  this  discredits  and  minimizes 
the  spiritual  and  rehgious  elements  in  life.  These 
higher  things  and  the  ancient  methods  of  deahng 
with  them  are  thought  of  as  too  sacred  to  be  subjected 
to  scientific  examination  and  improvement.  In  a 
journal  of  some  standing  in  one  of  our  prominent 
denominations  this  protest  was  voiced  in  these 
words:  "What  we  need  is  more  faith  and  less 
pedagogy." 

Such  a  point  of  view  as  this  indicates  is  clearly 
narrow  and  unwise.  There  is  no  matter  so  important, 
none  so  concerns  all  right-thinking  people,  as  that  of 
getting  our  children  firmly  grounded  in  righteousness 
and  disposed  to  accept  the  way  of  Christ  with  respect 
to  life.  In  our  efforts  to  reach  this  end  we  cannot 
afford  to  neglect  anything  that  promises  to  give  light 
on  this  greatest  of  human  enterprises.  This  book  is 
an  effort  to  apply  some  of  the  principles  of  modern 
education  to  the  whole  development  of  personality, 
including  morals  and  rehgion. 


Educational  Methods  3 

2.  7s  pedagogy  applicable  to  religion  and  the  things 
of  the  spirit? 

This  is  only  another  way  of  asking  whether  religion 
and  the  highest  qualities  in  our  nature  are  lawless 
and  without  fundamental  connection  with  the  rest 
of  our  being,  or  whether  they  too  are  orderly  and 
natural  and  have  laws  that  we  can  discover  and  follow, 
so  that  we  may  form  rules  for  culturing  them.  If  the 
spiritual  part  of  us  and  our  religious  and  moral  natures 
are  closely  connected  with  our  physical  and  mental 
qualities;  if  these  spiritual  qualities  grow  and  reach 
their  best  according  to  inherent,  natural,  God-given 
laws;  if  they  can  be  influenced  and  definitely  changed 
by  forces  that  may  be  brought  to  bear  on  them  from 
the  outside;  and  if  we  may  say  that  certain  causes 
tend  to  produce  certain  effects  in  morals  and  religion 
and  in  our  spiritual  characteristics,  —  it  is  at  once 
clear  that  we  may  organize  these  facts  into  a  common- 
sense  system  by  means  of  which  we  may  consciously 
influence  the  lives  of  our  children  toward  character 
and  religious  efficiency  just  as  really  as  toward  physical 
or  mental  efficiency. 

If  it  is  once  agreed  that  the  moral  and  spiritual 
nature  is  a  part  of  the  natural  endowment  of  mankind, 
indeed  just  as  natural  as  the  qualities  of  our  body  and 
mind,  it  follows  that  we  can  get  light  on  the  spiritual 
qualities  by  a  study  of  them,  just  as  we  can  by  a 
careful  study  of  the  bodily  and  mental  characteristics. 
Furthermore  if  we  agree  that  the  moral  and  spiritual 
states  are  closely  related  to,  and  determined  in  great 


4  Use  of  Motives 

degree  by,  the  states  of  body  and  mind,  we  must 
recognize  that  the  common-sense  study  of  these  lower 
quahties  will  also  throw  light  on  the  pedagogy  of  the 
spirit. 

Most  modern  teachers  feel  all  these  propositions  to 
be  true  and  feel  that  we  have  not  done  as  well  in  our 
efforts  at  moral  and  religious  education  as  we  might 
have  done,  chiefly  because  we  have  been  slow  to  give 
to  it  that  careful  and  critical  study  which  we  have 
given  to  ordinary  education.  Such  teachers  feel  that 
Jesus  was  uttering  a  very  profound  truth  when  he 
said  to  Nicodemus  that  the  individual  spiritual  and 
moral  nature  is  '*  born,"  —  that  is,  begins  in  a  small 
way, —  and  therefore  must  develop  just  as  really  as  the 
intellectual  and  physical.  They  feel  that  we  have 
made  this  revelation  of  Jesus,  which  he  gave  us  to 
enable  us  to  understand  and  guide  the  culture  of  the 
growing  soul,  do  service  as  a  kind  of  pious  excuse  for 
a  lazy  dependence  on  mystical  and  supernatural 
processes.  We  may  well  believe  that  the  Father  has 
infinite  resources  for  the  inspiration  of  the  human 
spirit;  but  we  have  no  right  because  of  this  to  ignore 
the  perfectly  manifest  and  equally  divine  natural 
agencies  he  has  placed  in  our  hands  to  secure  the 
soul-culture  that  he  desires. 

3.  The  two  factors  in  teaching. 

If,  then,  teaching  may  become  really  scientific,  and 
if  individuals  may  be  educated  in  respect  even  to  the 
deeper  moral  and  religious  nature,  it  becomes  essential 
that  we  try  to  see  what  results  we  aim  to  get  through 


Educational  Methods  5 

our  teaching  and  what  resources  we  have  with  which 
to  get  them.  In  a  study  of  this  kind  it  is  important 
that  we  strip  ourselves,  for  the  time,  of  all  traditional 
and  theological  conceptions  and  try  in  a  common- 
sense  way  to  find  and  to  state  our  problems. 

As  Christian  parents  and  teachers  we  are  seeking 
with  all  our  powers  to  develop  right  and  completef 
which  is  to  say  Christlike,  character  in  the  individual. 
This  means  that  we  take  the  young  child  and  secure 
in  each  individual,  by  information  and  inspiration  and 
training,  the  development  of  the  disposition  and  the 
power  to  choose  from  within  in  righteous  ways.  Jesus 
himself  labeled  the  child  as  already  the  type-member 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  endowed  naturally  by  the 
Creator  with  all  its  gradually  unfolding  powers, 
including  the  religious  and  spiritual. 

Choice  or  decision  is  the  central  thing  in  all  character. 
It  is  the  human  state  in  which  morality  and  religion 
are  most  fully  shown.  No  Christian  can  be  more 
than  one  who,  in  all  his  relations  in  life,  desires  the 
right  things  and  is  able  and  willing,  because  of  his 
internal  qualities,  to  choose  and  to  do  the  right  things. 
One  who  has  less  than  this  is  not  a  complete  Christian, 
no  matter  what  he  believes,  how  much  he  knows,  nor 
what  upturning  emotional  or  intellectual  experiences 
he  may  have  had. 

In  the  effort  to  train  the  individual  in  this  quest  for 
right  character  that  will  choose  the  right  in  practise, 
we  have  just  two  assets  with  which  to  work:  (1) 
the  inherited  personality,  with  all  its  original,  native. 


6  Use  of  Motives 

God-given,  developing  qualities,  tendencies,  and 
powers;  and  (2)  the  facts  and  truths  and  relations  of 
the  universe  as  these  have  been  revealed  to  us.  It 
is  our  business  so  to  use  these  truths  as  to  produce 
just  the  right  results  in  the  personality.  To  do  this 
we  must  know  and  respect  truth,  whatever  its  source. 
Equally  we  must  know  and  respect  the  elements  and 
laws  of  the  whole  of  personality  that  determine  these 
choices.  Our  task  is  to  get  the  best  results  with  the 
personalities  and  the  truths  at  our  disposal. 

4.  The  proper  relation  of  these  two  factors  in  edu- 
cation. 

It  is  our  appreciation  of  these  two  factors  that 
determines  how  we  shall  proceed.  It  is  the  relative 
value  that  we  give  to  these  two  things  that  determines 
our  pedagogy.  It  is  the  modern  viewpoint  that  the 
personality  of  the  pupil  is  the  central  thing,  and  that 
truths  and  systems  and  science  and  institutions  exist 
for,  and  are  to  be  adapted  to,  the  child,  and  not  the 
child  to  these.  This  view  has  complete  support  both 
in  the  discoveries  of  the  students  of  childhood  and  in 
the  teachings  of  Jesus. 

In  much  of  our  general  teaching  we  teachers  have, 
in  effect,  been  saying  something  hke  this:  "The 
subject  we  are  teaching  (whether  mathematics, 
language,  or  science)  is  the  result  of  long  study  by 
scholars.  It  is  organized  in  the  best  way  we  know. 
The  children  must  come  to  this  subject  and  take  it  in 
the  way  it  has  been  organized  and  interpreted  by  our 
mature  thinking.     If  the  child  is  not  interested  in  it 


Educational  Methods  7 

in  this  form,  or  cannot  grasp  it,  so  much  the  worse 
for  the  child.  This  is  only  evidence  that  it  is  not 
normal." 

We  are  not  completely  away  from  this  sort  of  thing 
in  any  of  our  teaching;  but  we  are  rapidly  getting 
away  from  it.  We  understand,  in  theory  at  least,  that 
the  nature  of  the  child  is  not  to  be  bent  to  the  logic 
of  the  subject,  but  that  the  subject  is  to  be  picked  to 
pieces  without  any  respect  to  our  mature  science  of  it, 
and  it  is  to  be  used  in  the  way  which  will  best  arouse, 
stimulate,  feed,  inform,  and  nourish  the  child.  The 
child  assimilates  suitable  portions  of  truth  and  grows 
by  it  into  truthfulness. 

In  our  religious  education  particularly  we  fall  into 
this  error  of  letting  our  mature  ideas  of  the  subject, 
rather  than  the  child,  dominate  the  teaching.  We 
say:  "  In  the  Bible  we  have  the  truth  of  God.  This 
is  the  text-book  of  the  religious  life.  Our  theologians 
and  denominational  philosophers  have  organized 
some  of  it  into  a  system.  This  commends  itself  to 
our  mature  minds.  This  is  the  doctrine  delivered  to 
the  saints.  This  must  be  given  to  our  children  so 
that  they  too  may  have  our  views  of  divine  truth." 
There  is  no  more  justification  for  this  attitude  in 
religious  matters  than  in  mathematics.  Indeed  more 
danger  will  come  in  the  former  than  in  the  latter  case 
from  this  unpedagogic  attitude. 

The  child's  religious  nature,  just  as  its  conception 
of  numbers,  is  a  native  and  growing  thing.  It  is  not 
just  the  same  in  any  two  individuals,  nor  at  any  two 


8  Use  of  Motives 

periods  in  the  same  individual.  As  its  body  and  mind, 
so  the  spirit  of  the  child  must  have  food  suited  not 
merely  to  its  comprehension  but  to  its  interest  and 
growth.  The  sacredness  of  the  spiritual  nature  does 
not  make  it  any  exception  to  the  principle  that  the 
child  is  the  center  of  all  instruction,  and  is  more  sacred 
always  than  the  material  of  instruction.  The  only 
value  the  Bible  or  any  other  body  of  religious  teach- 
ing has  is  that  human  beings  may  be  taught  by  it. 
Material  for  religious  teaching  must  be  graded  and 
presented  solely  with  the  child's  needs  in  view.  This 
is  religious  pedagogy.  It  is  common  sense  applied 
to  the  proper  development  of  humans,  physical, 
mental,  social,  moral,  and  spiritual.  Our  sole  test 
must  be  so  to  apply  truth  as  to  develop  by  means  of 
it  the  disposition  and  the  power  to  make  right  choices 
in  life. 

5.  Education  and  evangelism. 

In  this  task  of  leading  youth  into  right  habits  of 
choice  two  methods  have  been  stressed  by  religious 
people.  Unfortunately  these  methods  have  been 
looked  upon  as  antagonistic  to  one  another.  One 
attitude  is  illustrated  by  the  more  f  ormalistic  churches, 
such  as  the  Catholic,  Lutheran  and  Episcopal. 
These  have  emphasized  chiefly  instruction  and  the 
formation  of  early  habits  of  right  action.  All  stu- 
dents of  religion  must  be  impressed  with  the  hold 
which  these  churches  have  been  getting  upon  their 
young  people.  It  may  be  that  much  of  the  matter 
that  has  been  included  in  this  teaching  has  not  been 


Educational  Methods  9 

very  vital  or  developing.  Nevertheless  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  nature  of  the  training  is  such  that 
the  influence  of  the  teaching  is  long-lived. 

On  the  other  hand,  and  largely  as  a  reaction  from 
this  formal  method  of  bringing  the  individual  into  the 
church,  there  has  arisen  a  group  of  religious  leaders 
who  look  on  such  teaching  as  of  minor  importance. 
These  people  look  upon  an  emotional  response,  made 
up  largely  of  hopes  and  fears,  as  of  the  first  importance. 
This  is  the  idea  of  the  so-called  evangelistic  churches, 
at  least  in  so  far  as  they  are  to  be  distinguished  from 
the  others.  This  idea  has  had  a  marked  develop- 
ment in  the  last  two  hundred  years. 

Both  of  these  ideas  and  the  methods  growing  out 
of  them  are  extreme.  There  is  no  question  that  the 
emotions  and  desires  have  a  large  and  fundamental 
place  in  determining  choice  and  character  in  reference 
to  spiritual  things,  as  elsewhere.  In  this  the  evangel- 
istic idea  and  method  are  sound.  On  the  other  hand 
it  is  equally  true  that  information,  training,  and  habits 
have  very  much  to  do  with  choice  and  character. 
Training  in  making  right  choices  prepares  for  the 
great  choice  of  Christ  as  Savior  of  life,  and  for  the 
after  choices  which  test  this  great  choice.  In  this 
the  non-evangelistic  churches  are  equally  right.  The 
weakness  of  the  formalistic  churches  is  that  the 
choices  may  lack  the  emotions  that  give  them  power. 
The  weakness  of  the  evangelistic  churches  comes  from 
the  fact  that  they  read  into  the  one  great  choice  more 
meaning  than  it  can  possibly  contain,  and  this  tends  to 


10  Use  of  Motives 

minimize  the  importance  in  their  minds  of  the  practi- 
cal choices  that  follow,  and  of  the  character  that 
makes  them  certain. 

Real  Christianity  can  only  suffer  by  any  such  effort 
to  narrow  the  basis  of  religion.  Religion  includes  the 
whole  of  man.  Its  purpose  is  to  give  a  sense  of  pro- 
portion, —  a  sense  of  values,  —  to  cause  one  to  make 
choices  in  the  light  of  the  whole  of  life  rather  than  by 
a  portion  of  it.  The  evangelist  errs  in  not  realizing 
that  morals  and  reUgion  based  on  information  and 
training  are  just  as  vital  as  any  that  can  grow  out  of 
the  appeal  to  the  more  primitive  emotions.  The 
only  thing  we  are  concerned  with  is  right  character, 
guided  from  within  into  right  choices.  It  is  absolutely 
a  matter  of  indifference  how  much  of  it  comes  through 
the  emotional  side  and  how  much  through  the  in- 
tellectual and  habit  side,  —  provided  always  that  the 
right  actions  of  the  individual  are  the  outcome  of  his  own 
right  states,  —  and  that  these  are  permanent  states. 

It  is  further  necessary  for  us  to  remember  that 
education  is  not  limited  to  the  training  of  the  intelli- 
gence merely.  The  emotions  can  be  educated  and 
need  education  just  as  much  as  the  intellect.  Much 
of  what  has  been  called  ''  heart  religion  "  and  "  ex- 
perimental religion  ''  is  an  emotional  spasm  and  not 
even  a  permanent  and  rightly  trained  emotional 
attitude.  It  too  often  lacks  constancy  because  the 
emotions  are  not  trained  and  not  balanced  by  cor- 
responding training  of  the  other  qualities  that  help 
to  make  choices  sound. 


Educational  Methods  11 

The  church,  when  it  comes  to  understand  the  peda- 
gogy of  the  rehgious  nature,  will  not  therefore  make  an 
antithesis  between  education  and  evangelism.  It 
will  rather  train  the  emotional  life  wisely  from  the 
beginning  alongside  with  information  and  reasoning 
and  habit,  by  every  teaching  device  known  to  us. 
And  on  the  basis  of  all  this  it  will  use  the  evangehstic 
appeal  as  warmly  and  sanely  as  possible,  —  not  as 
something  different  from  education,  but  as  a  part  of 
education.  It  will  seek  to  have  every  choice,  from 
that  which  accepts  Christ  as  the  Master  of  life  to  the 
little  hourly  choices  which  are  so  much  more  difficult 
to  make,  involve  the  self-activity  of  the  whole  of  the 
personality.  This  is  the  only  way  to  get  a  religious 
life  that  does  not  involve  a  continual  conflict  between 
the  desires  and  the  reason.  We  are  greatly  at  fault 
that  we  have  undertaken  to  emphasize  either  at  the 
expense  of  the  other. 

6.  A  crying  need  of  better  methods. 

It  can  scarcely  be  claimed  by  any  student  of  the 
subject  that  our  success  in  rearing  our  own  children 
to  the  type  of  character  and  conduct  that  can  fairly 
be  called  Christian  is  so  great  that  we  need  not  look 
for  better  methods.  It  is  true  even  in  Christian  homes 
and  churches  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  the 
children  are  not  safely  developed  into  what  we  desire 
in  respect  to  personality.  Instead  of  comfortably 
charging  up  these  failures  to  supernatural  forces  of 
evil,  it  would  be  more  sane  and  honest  to  seek  out 
the  points  where  we  as  religious  teachers  are  most 


12  Use  of  Motives 

signally  failing,  and  try  by  good  pedagogy  and  sound 
evangelism  to  increase  the  measure  of  our  success. 

There  is  just  now  a  crying  need  that  all  the  con- 
structive forces  of  society  unite  in  finding  better 
methods  of  getting  right  moral  and  religious  results. 
The  formal,  traditional  instruction  of  the  non-evan-r 
gelical  churches  is  failing  to  make  real  Christians  in 
any  large  numbers.  The  emotional  evangelism  of  the 
evangelistic  churches  is  in  its  turn  failing  to  develop 
right  character  in  practise.  The  homes,  the  schools, 
the  Sunday  schools,  and  the  churches  should  find  a 
way  to  join  in  this,  the  most  important  enterprise  of 
human  society.  The  only  possible  way  to  correct 
the  situation  is  to  take  what  has  been  found  really 
valuable  in  the  emotional  approach  and  add  to  this 
the  best  training  and  habit-formation  we  can  get; 
vitalize  all  these  methods  by  the  best  insight  we  can 
get  from  the  scientific  study  of  the  child  and  of  its 
development.  This  we  must  do  with  minds  con- 
tinually open  to  possible  improvement  in  our  methods. 
For  we  are,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  just  beginning  to 
experiment  on  this  most  complex  and  difficult  phase 
of  human  education.  Our  efforts  at  religious  education 
until  very  recent  years  have  been  much  like  the 
practise  of  medicine  three  hundred  years  ago,  —  a 
mixture  of  quackery  and  superstition. 

Morals  and  religion,  to  have  any  value,  must  in- 
clude the  physical,  the  intellectual,  the  emotional, 
and  the  social  in  relation  to  the  spiritual.  It  is  there- 
fore more  complex  and  more  difficult  than  any  or 


Educational  Methods  IZ 

all  of  these.  But,  because  it  includes  these,  whatever 
we  have  learned  about  education  in  these  simpler 
fields  will  help  us  in  the  higher  and  more  complex  task 
of  religious  education,  if  we  but  have  the  insight  to 
use  it.    We  cannot  afford  to  ignore  it. 

7.  Summary. 

The  educational  method  as  applied  to  religion 
merely  means  that  better  results  will  be  had  if  we 
study  the  factors  in  the  religious  life  of  human  beings 
and  undertake  to  meet  and  utilize  all  these  factors  in 
a  scientific  and  complete  way.  By  studying  the  nature 
and  content  of  the  religious  qualities,  by  learning 
how  these  are  related  to  our  other  characteristics  and 
how  they  grow,  by  knowing  how  truth  and  situations 
may  best  be  used  to  develop  the  qualities  we  desire, 
we  will  increase  the  chances  of  bringing  our  young 
people  into  full  use  and  enjoyment  of  their  moral  and 
religious  capabilities.  Many  of  the  natural  qualities, 
as  instincts,  desires,  emotions,  ideas,  habits  and 
the  like,  have  much  to  do  with  our  choices.  Choice 
is  at  the  very  heart  of  morals  and  rehgion.  All  of 
these  things  may  be  modified  by  training. 

Topics  for  Further  Study  and  Discussion 

1.  There  are  two  great  factors  which  we,  as  teachers, 
must  understand  and  take  into  account : 

(l)  Personality,  which  is  natural  and  native;  con- 
tains at  the  outset  the  germs  of  all  that  can  de- 
velop later;  is  central  and  determines  the  whole 
process;  is  plastic  and  capable  of  development. 


14  Use  of  Motives 

(2)   The  Materials  that  we  may  use  to  stimulate 
personahty.    What  are  they? 

2.  Pedagogy  consists  merely  in  trying  to  find  out 
so  much  about  both  (l)  and  (2)  that  we  shall  get  the 
best  possible  results  from  applying  (2)  to  (l). 

3.  Religious  Education  is  not  an  education  of  a 
part  of  personality.  It  is  the  education  of  all  of 
personality  into  a  particular  attitude.  It  must  include 
emotions,  desires,  reason,  ideals,  habits,  choices, 
will. 

4.  The  religious  nature  is  dependent  on  the  nature 
of  the  body  and  mind.  What  are  the  corollaries  of 
this? 

5.  Practical  possibilities  of  combining  evangelism 
and  education. 

6.  The  idea  of  "  progressive  decisions  "  in  respect 
to  religion. 

Suggestive  Questions 

Is  there  yet  a  real  science  of  education?  When 
can  it  become  so?  Do  we  use  the  same  degree  of 
common  sense  in  our  training  for  morals  and  religion 
that  we  use  in  training  for  the  various  life-professions 
and  callings?  Is  pedagogy  destructive  of  faith?  Do 
we  rule  God  out  of  life  when  we  say  that  religion  is  a 
natural  human  quality?  Why  must  we  fail  when  we 
present  religion  or  anything  else  to  youth  in  our 
mature  form?  Why  are  we  so  prone  to  try  to  bend 
the  child  to  our  mature  systems?  On  what  internal 
elements    does    right    choice    depend?      How    much 


Educational  Methods  15 

emotion  is  desirable  in  making  choices?  How  much 
knowledge?  Do  you  think  that  any  child  can,  once 
for  all,  make  an  acceptance  of  Christ  that  is  adequate 
and  complete?  What  then?  What  are  some  of  the 
corollaries  of  a  "  spiritual  birth  "f  Why  does  undue 
magnification  of  the  great  decision  tend  to  minimize 
religion  in  practise?    What  is  right  in  the  matter? 

Some  Practical  Problems 

1.  The  practical  education  of  the  emotional  states. 
Must  be  properly  educated,  just  as  other  qualities. 
Emotions  must  have  practise  and  expression.  How 
can  we  secure  practise  of  the  emotions?  Education 
sometimes  means  control  and  restraint  rather  than 
increase.  Answer  in  terms  of  some  of  the  following 
emotions:  —  sympathy,  love,  fear,  anger,  jealousy, 
kindliness,  joyousness,  gratitude,  etc. 

2.  The  modification  of  desires.  The  formation  of 
desires.  How  accomplished?  Trace  in  your  own 
experience  the  growth  or  waning  of  some  desire. 
What  elements  entered  into  this?  Bearing  of  this 
on  practical  education.  Can  one  desire  ever  be  made 
to  aid  in  the  development  or  control  of  another? 
Illustrate. 

References 

Bagley:    The    Educative    Process.      The  Macmillan 

Co.,  N.  Y.    $1.25 
Coe:    Education  in  Religion  and  Morals.    Fleming  H. 

Revell  Co.,  N.  Y.    $1.35 


16  Use  of  Motives 

Galloway:  Educational  Function  of  the  Sunday 
School,  in  Encyclopedia  of  Sunday  Schools  and 
Religious  Education,  Thomas  Nelson  and  Sons, 
N.  Y. 

Home:  Psychological  Principles  of  Education.  The 
Macmillan  Co.,  N.  Y.    $1.75 

James:  Talks  to  Teachers  on  Psychology.  Henry 
Holt  &  Co.,  N.  Y.    $1.50 

Kirkpatrick:  Fundamentals  of  Child  Study.  The 
Macmillan  Co.,  N.  Y.    $1.25 


CHAPTER  II 

SOME  PRINCIPLES  ACCEPTED  IN  GENERAL 

EDUCATION  WHICH  MUST  BE  APPLIED 

IN  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

1.  Introduction. 

There  will  be  no  effort  in  this  chapter  to  discuss  at 
length  the  principles  of  teaching,  either  in  general 
or  in  religious  education.  The  writer  feels,  however, 
that  mention  should  be  made  of  a  few  of  the  accepted 
beliefs  in  respect  to  the  general  problems  of  education 
which  seem  most  fully  to  bear  on  the  moral  and 
religious  training.  There  is  no  thought  that  we  can 
apply  directly  to  religious  education  all  the  devices 
that  have  been  found  helpful  in  the  common  schools. 
Nevertheless  any  educational  principle  which  has 
been  shown  to  have  deep  meaning  in  the  education  of 
youth  is  more  than  likely  to  throw  light  on  these 
higher  forms  of  education  that  depend  on  the  lower. 
Some  of  these  fruitful  ideas  which  will  help  solve  our 
problems  in  religious  training  are  enumerated  in 
this  chapter. 

2.  The  unity  of  human  personality;  and  its  corol- 
laries. 

This  principle  means  that  personality  is  not  really 
divided  up  into  separate  faculties.  For  convenience 
we  sometimes  speak  as  though   it  were.      In  fact, 

17 


18  Use  of  Motives 

however,  we  cannot  separate  ourselves  into  bodily, 
intellectual,  emotional,  social,  moral,  and  spiritual 
faculties.  On  the  contrary  these  qualities  mutually 
influence  one  another.  No  one  of  them  can  be  trained 
without  all  of  them  being  modified  by  it.  None  can 
be  neglected  without  the  suffering  of  all.  When  I  am 
thinking  or  feeling  or  willing  my  whole  personality 
is  involved  in  the  act,  and  not  merely  a  special 
faculty  of  me.  When  I  am  making  moral  and  religious 
choices  the  same  is  true. 

Some  of  the  most  important  corollaries  of  this  truth 
for  the  teacher  of  religion  and  spiritual  things  are 
these:  —  (1)  We  must  seek  to  win  and  hold  the  whole 
of  the  child's  nature  and  make  it  all  contribute  to 
and  be  included  in  the  result;  and  (2)  we  have  more 
handles  or  starting-points  in  our  task  than  we  have 
thought.  In  other  words  we  may  start  anywhere  in 
personality  and  reach  the  spiritual  if  we  only  have 
insight  enough  to  follow  the  laws  of  personality  in 
taking  our  steps. 

3.  Good  teaching  always  involves  getting  from  the 
pupil  a  complete  mental  reaction  to  truth. 

When  we  appeal  to,  or  instruct,  or  otherwise  stimu- 
late a  living  person  we  expect  a  response  of  some  sort. 
This  is  the  sign  of  life.  All  life  has  the  power  and 
disposition  to  respond  to  stimulus.  The  nature  of  the 
response  is  the  measure  of  the  life.  In  our  education  of 
children  in  this  greatest  of  all  tasks  of  making  righteous 
choices,  it  is  essential  that  the  pupil  respond,  and  re- 
spond correctly  in  the  light  of  all  he  knows.    Stimulus 


Some  Principles  of  General  Education  19 

without  response  is  deadening  to  the  whole  of  person- 
ahty.  To  be  aroused  and  not  to  act  tends  to  destroy 
the  power  and  disposition  to  respond.  Furthermore 
any  response  which  is  produced  and  determined  by  only 
a  part  of  personality,  as  by  the  desires  alone  or  the 
habits  alone  or  the  reasoning  alone,  is  necessarily 
incomplete  and  false  to  the  total  of  personality.  The 
only  safe  method  in  early  education  is  to  see  to  it  that 
every  stimulus  is  allowed  to  bring  the  proper  response. 
In  this  way  the  child  becomes  not  merely  responsive 
but  learns  to  make  each  response  in  the  light  of  all 
its  outlook  and  resources. 

4.  The  self-activity  of  the  pupil  is  absolutely  essential 
in  moral  and  religious  education. 

It  is  not  enough  in  morals  to  get  a  response  from 
the  pupil  involving  an  adequate  reaction  of  his  per- 
sonality to  the  stimulus.  This  response  must  he  the 
pupiVs  very  own.  It  is  possible  to  impart  information 
or  to  get  some  forms  of  attitude  and  habit  with  little 
internal  activity  on  the  part  of  the  child.  But  in 
morals  and  religion,  as  well  as  in  most  other  significant 
elements  of  character,  the  culture  does  not  come 
through  responses  which  are  forced  from  the  outside. 
To  have  moral  and  spiritual  significance  all  attitudes, 
choices,  and  decisions  must  be  the  child's  own.  There 
is  no  place  in  education  where  the  principle  of  self- 
activity  is  as  important  as  in  religious  training. 

5.  The  pupiVs  interest  is  the  surest  road  to  self- 
activity. 

A  complete  personal  reaction  is  self-activity.     A 


20  Use  of  Motives 

reaction  forced  from  without  does  not  often  insure  a 
complete  response.  Activity  or  response  which  is  the 
resultant  of  the  whole  of  the  nature  is  necessarily- 
more  educative  than  enforced  or  partial  responses. 
The  greatest  aid  to  this  kind  of  response  controlled 
from  within  is  the  active  interest  of  the  child  in  the 
thing  that  is  desired.  Any  time  spent  in  finding  the 
pupil's  interests,  or  in  arousing  his  interest  in  some- 
thing which  will  make  him  an  ally  rather  than  an 
opponent  of  the  parent  or  teacher,  is  most  profitably 
spent.  This  principle  of  interest  is  one  of  the  most 
fruitful  in  modern  education.  It  is  even  more  im- 
portant in  moral  and  religious  training  than  in  mental, 
since  moral  choices  involve  the  individual's  complete 
appreciation  of  relative  values,  and  his  whole-hearted 
response  to  them.  Nothing  but  interest  can  secure 
this. 

6.  The  natural  instincts,  impulses  and  motives  should 
render  their  service. 

All  the  natural  qualities  of  personality,  —  as 
curiosity,  imagination,  restlessness,  greed,  fear,  confi- 
dence, and  the  like, —  are  able,  if  properly  handled,  to 
make  some  contribution  to  personality,  including 
the  religious  nature.  The  task  of  the  teacher  is  to 
call  upon  these  inner  tendencies  and  to  use  them  at  the 
right  time  and  in  the  right  amount;  to  develop  those 
that  should  grow,  but  to  see  that  they  do  not  become 
over-powerful;  to  displace  by  better  ones  those  that 
should  not  become  permanent  elements  in  character. 
It  is  by  proper  treatment  of  these  native  desires  and 


Some  Principles  of  General  Education  21 

impulses  that  we  arouse  interest,  get  the  "  point  of 
contact  '*  in  teaching,  and  secure  motives  sufficient 
to  get  self-active  responses.  We  have  not  really 
appreciated  the  driving  power  of  these  instincts. 
They  furnish  the  momentum  of  life. 

7.  Personal  satisfaction  is  the  potent  agency  in  all 
education. 

All  education,  including  moral  and  religious,  con- 
sists in  the  establishment  of  connections  or  associations 
between  situations  and  conduct  by  way  of  our  per- 
sonal states.  In  the  lower  animals  and  in  lower 
human  activities  these  connections  are  very  simple 
and  direct  because  the  internal  states  are  simple.  For 
example,  a  chicken  learns  to  get  out  of  a  labyrinth 
and  join  its  fellows  on  the  outside  by  establishing  a 
connection  between  this  total  situation  and  those  of 
its  own  actions  by  which  it  gets  out.  At  first  it  tries 
a  large  number  of  useless  activities;  but  gradually 
it  learns  which  of  these  are  useless  and  it  connects 
in  its  own  mind  the  correct  muscular  actions  with 
the  desired  result.  Thus  it  learns  after  some  trials 
to  get  out  in  one  tenth  of  the  time  required  at  first. 
In  the  higher  human  stages  the  connections  include 
memory,  ideas,  habits,  standards,  choices,  and  the 
like.  But  whether  in  the  education  of  the  lower 
animal  to  perform  his  tricks  or  in  the  human  being 
to  choose  righteousness,  the  satisfaction  or  the  dis- 
comfort that  accompanies  the  act  has  more  influence 
in  stamping  in  or  stamping  out  the  particular  response 
or  action  than  anything  else.    If  the  child  experiences 


22  Use  of  Motives 

satisfaction  as  the  result  of  a  special  action  under  a 
given  situation  it  is  very  likely  to  select  and  repeat 
the  action  under  similar  circumstances.  It  is  by  such 
repetition  that  habitual  connections  are  made.  This 
is  just  as  true  if  the  satisfaction  takes  the  higher 
mental  and  spiritual  form.  Personal  satisfaction  is 
thus  one  of  the  greatest  instruments  in  the  educational 
process,  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest.  We  must 
come  to  know  how  best  to  use  it  for  moral  and  religious 
ends.  Our  work  becomes  in  large  measure  a  matter 
of  educating  the  satisfactions. 

8.  There  must  he  the  fullest  possible  grading  of  all 
that  concerns  moral  and  religious  instruction. 

This  is  implied  in  much  that  has  already  been  said. 
It  is  recognized  in  some  degree  even  in  the  crudest  of 
our  teaching.  But  we  have  still  further  to  go  in  this 
regard.  The  simplest  form  of  grading,  and  the  first 
to  be  recognized,  is  the  grading  of  methods  of  instruc- 
tion. This  we  have  been  doing  for  some  years  in  the 
old  uniform  Sunday-school  lessons.  Different  methods 
were  devised  in  an  effort  to  make  this  one  lesson  serve 
all  ages  and  grades.  It  is,  to  be  sure,  like  grading 
trigonometry  to  all  classes  from  the  kindergarten  to 
the  high  school.  It  is  an  effort  to  compensate  for 
presenting  unsuitable  material  at  all  by  seeking  to 
do  it  in  a  way  suited  to  the  development  of  pupils. 
A  more  fundamental  grading  is  that  of  the  materials 
of  instruction.  This  means  that  at  every  step  the 
material  chosen  must  be  suited  to  the  particular  stage 
of  the  child's  growth  and  development,  to  his  interests. 


Some  Principles  of  General  Education  23 

to  his  emotional  states,  to  his  favorite  modes  of  self- 
expression,  and  to  his  satisfactions.  In  a  word  our 
matter  and  method  of  teaching  cannot  secure  a 
normal,  natural,  sound,  complete  personal  reaction 
unless  it  is  graded  to  the  whole  of  personality.  It  is 
more  necessary  to  grade  instruction  that  seeks  to 
secure  right  conduct  than  that  which  seeks  merely 
to  impart  information.  So  grading  is  even  more 
important  in  Sunday-school  work  than  it  is  in  the 
day  schools;  because  here  information  is  merely  a 
means  to  an  end.  We  are  seeking  choice  and  behavior 
through  information. 

9.  We  must  recognize  that  all  education,  and  in 
particular  moral  and  religious  education,  is  in  a  tenta- 
tive and  experimental  stage. 

The  quality  and  results  of  our  efforts  at  religious 
training  have  suffered  much  because  of  an  idea  that 
the  steps  in  the  religious  life  have,  supernaturally,  been 
made  complete,  simple,  and  clear.  It  is  not  simple. 
On  the  contrary  moral  and  religious  education  is  as 
much  more  complex  than  mental  as  the  mental  is 
than  the  physical.  Moral  and  rehgious  education 
includes  the  mental  and  the  physical  and  social  aside 
from  its  own  particular  elements.  Much  of  our  failure 
in  the  past  is  due  to  our  failure  to  recognize  this  fact. 
It  has  made  us  careless  of  our  study  of  the  elements  in 
moral  and  religious  education.  Indeed  it  has  made 
some  good  people  deny  that  the  teacher  of  religion 
and  morals  need  know  anything  of  psychology  or 
pedagogy.     It  has  made  us  feel  that  the  complex 


24  Use  of  Motives 

moral  and  spiritual  teaching  may  safely  be  put  into 
the  hands  of  persons  less  skilled  than  those  who  care 
for  the  minds  of  our  children  or  than  the  physicians 
who  care  for  their  bodies. 

In  reality  the  human  race  is  just  waking  up  to  the 
complexity  and  to  the  possibilities  of  systematic 
religious  education.  We  have  not  really  penetrated 
the  outer  crust  of  the  subject.  We  are  not  in  a  position 
to  dogmatize  about  anything.  It  is  our  duty  to 
recognize  that  we  are  experimenting.  It  is  our  duty 
to  experiment  sanely,  and  through  systematic  study 
of  our  experiments  to  improve. 

Topics  for  Further  Study  and  Discussion 

1.  The  relation  of  the  principles  of  general  educa- 
tion to  those  of  moral  and  religious  education. 

2.  Mention  some  of  the  corollaries  of  the  fact  that 
personality  is  a  unity. 

3.  ^*  Faculty  "  psychology.  Meaning  of  the  ex- 
pression.   The  opposite  conception. 

4.  The  ability  to  respond  to  stimuli  is  the  measure 
of  life. 

5.,  Develop  more  fully  the  meaning  and  role  of 
self-activity  in  growth  and  education. 

6.  The  strongest  reasons  for  a  complete  grading  of 
Sunday-school  lessons. 

Suggestive  Questions 

Why  is  it  probable  that  most  of  the  important  dis- 
coveries in  general  education  will  help  in  moral  and 


Some  Principles  of  General  Education  25 

religious  education?  Is  it  possible  to  train  or  neglect 
one  part  of  our  nature  and  not  have  some  effect  on  the 
rest?  Does  this  mean  that  all  parts  are  of  equal 
importance?  Why  is  ^'  self -activity  "  more  important 
in  moral  and  religious  education  than  in  any  other? 
Why  is  play  so  educative  to  children?  Which  is  more 
important,  —  grading  the  materials  of  instruction  or 
the  method  of  presenting  the  material?  Why?  Is  it 
enough  to  grade  Sunday-school  instruction  to  the 
intelligence  of  the  pupil?  What  then?  Why  is  it 
more  important  to  grade  instruction  that  strives  to 
mold  choices  and  conduct  than  that  which  seeks 
merely  to  give  information? 

Some  Practical  Problems 

1.  Self-activity  versus  external  control.  Is  it 
necessary  to  allow  a  child  to  "  run.  wild  ^'  in  order  to 
reahze  "  self-activity "?  Must  a  child  be  forced 
to  feel  and  think  and  do  as  we  think  best  in  order  to 
have  a  sound  attitude  of  obedience  and  to  perform 
our  full  duty  by  him?  What  is  the  sane  point  of 
view?  Have  you  achieved  it?  If  you  are  convinced 
that  a  child  should  feel  or  think  or  do  something  which 
he  is  manifestly  unwilling  to  do,  what  are  the  wise 
and  sane  steps  of  procedure? 

2.  Grading  teaching  to  the  whole  of  life.  To  be 
most  successful,  teaching  must  be  graded  to  the 
emotional  life,  to  the  desires,  to  the  capacity  for 
interest,  to  the  satisfactions,  and  to  the  powers  of 
expression  of  the  child,  as  well  as  to  his  understanding. 


26  Use  of  Motives 

Can  you  mention  some  aspects  of  morals  and  religion 
that  a  child  could  not  be  expected  to  appreciate? 
Mention  some  instances  of  teaching  that  violate  the 
rule. 

3.  Complete  and  partial  responses.  Suppose  a 
child  desires  very  much  to  do  a  certain  thing.  If 
its  judgment  and  experience  prompts  it  to  do  the 
opposite,  how  can  we  best  help  the  child?  To  get  a 
full  and  complete  response  we  need  to  win  over  the 
desires.  Why  is  this  better  than  issuing  an  order, 
accompanied  by  a  threat? 

References 

Athearn:  Contributions  of  General  Psychology  and 
Pedagogy  to  Religious  Education,  in  Encyclo- 
pedia of  Sunday  Schools  and  Religious  Education. 
Thomas  Nelson  and  Sons,  N.  Y. 

Burton  and  Mathews:  Principles  and  Ideals  for  the 
Sunday  School.  University  of  Chicago  Press. 
$1.00 

Dewey:  Moral  Principles  in  Education.  Houghton 
Mifflin  Co.,  Boston.     .35 

Galloway:  Principles  of  Religious  Development.  The 
Macmillan  Co.,  N.  Y.    $3.00 

Starhuck:  Psychology  of  Religion.  Chas.  Scribner's 
Sons,  N.  Y.  $1.50.  Also  Religious  Education, 
Vol.  8;  Dec,  1913. 

(See  also  references  for  Chapter  I.) 


CHAPTER  III 

SOME  ESSENTIAL  NATURAL  ELEMENTS  IN 

EDUCATION 

L  Personality  and  environment. 

A  little  thinking  will  make  clear  to  us  that  what  is 
within  us  and  what  is  without  us  make  up  all  the 
elements  that  enter  into  our  lives.  To  relate  properly 
that  which  is  within  us  to  that  which  is  without  is 
the  act  of  living,  and  includes  all  the  problems  of 
living.  Personality  then,  in  its  entirety,  and  the 
whole  of  the  environment  of  personality,  include  all 
that  we  can  consider  in  respect  to  life  and  education. 
We  must  not  mistake,  however.  Personality  is  ex- 
tremely complex,  and  the  environment  is  equally  so, 
including  as  it  does  all  the  material,  the  mental,  the 
social,  and  the  spiritual  surroundings.  The  environ- 
ment includes  all  that  may  act  upon  us.  It  includes 
truth  and  beauty  and  God  no  less  than  it  does  other 
individuals  and  food  and  light.  Life  is  the  interaction 
of  the  individual  and  its  environment. 

2.  Adaptation,  or  the  adjustment  of  personality  to 
the  environment. 

The  most  interesting  and  distinctive  thing  about 
life  is  the  capacity  of  the  individual  to  be  aroused  by, 
and  the  power  to  respond  to,  the  environment.  In 
every  act  of  responding  to  the  influence  of  the  en- 

2fZ 


28  Use  of  Motives 

vironment  the  individual  is  changed,  and  in  the  long 
run  the  changes  are  such  that  the  organism  becomes 
better  adjusted  to  its  surroundings  as  the  result  of 
them.  This  is  found  in  life  of  all  degrees,  and  is  one 
of  the  most  interesting  and  far-reaching  things  we 
have  learned  from  the  study  of  living  objects.  Every 
act  of  the  living  organism  is  in  some  way  related  to 
this  necessity  of  adjustment  to  its  environment.  All 
education,  from  the  most  material  to  the  most  spiritual, 
is  conditioned  by  this  principle.  All  organisms  must 
in  the  end  become  adjusted  to  all  the  really  im- 
portant and  influential  forces  in  their  environment. 
Adaptation  to  truth  and  God  are  as  real  and  neces- 
sary, if  these  are  important  in  influencing  life,  as 
adaptation  to  water  and  food,  and  for  the  very 
same  reasons. 

It  is  important  for  us  to  realize  that  this  adjust- 
ment between  the  individual  and  the  environment  is 
almost  exclusively  the  work  of  the  organism.  True, 
the  environment  may  change  from  time  to  time  and 
might  incidentally  become  more  favorable;  but  the 
individual  is  really  the  plastic  thing.  In  the  long 
run  it  must  make  the  adjustment.  It  is  the  organism 
and  not  the  environment  that  is  destroyed  if  the 
adjustment  is  not  made.  The  shorn  lamb  becomes 
adjusted  to  the  wind,  rather  than  the  reverse. 

Light  then  is  not  adjusted  to  the  eye,  nor  water 
to  meet  our  thirst,  nor  God  to  our  consciousness  of 
him.  The  eye  has  gradually  grown  into  adjustment 
to  light.    The  organism  is  the  plastic,  growing,  adap- 


Some  Essential  Natural  Elements  29 

tive  thing.  Thus  have  human  personalities  come  into 
adaptation  with  the  great  reahties  of  the  universe 
about  us.  It  is  because  of  this  power  of  adjustment 
that  any  education  is  possible.  Education  should  be 
an  adjustment  to  the  conditions  of  life. 

3.  The  place  of  personality  in  life  and  education. 
In  all  the  process  of  human  growth  and  education 
it  is  the  human  personality  that  is  being  continually 
influenced  and  is  becoming  adjusted  to  the  real  things 
in  the  environment.  It  must  be  recognized  as  cen- 
tral in  the  whole  process.  The  environment,  good  or 
bad,  may  act  and  stimulate;  but  it  is  the  personality 
that  responds  well  or  ill,  and  is  modified  in  accordance 
with  the  nature  of  the  response.  The  individual 
cannot  again  be  the  same  after  having  been  stimu- 
lated and  having  responded.  If  it  responds  in  the 
right  way  it  is  preserved  and  has  comfort  and  will  be 
more  likely  to  respond  in  the  same  way  again.  Some- 
thing has  been  left  in  personality  by  experience.  Per- 
sonality is  thus  built  up  by  its  responses  to  its  stimuli. 
This  is  development. 

In  responding  to  outside  influences  men  and  other 
organisms  have  a  choice  of  at  least  two  ways  of 
acting.  For  example,  organisms  that  are  influenced 
by  light  or  gravity  may  move  toward  the  light  or 
away  from  it,  with  the  pull  of  gravity  or  in  the 
opposite  direction.  Some  types  of  animals  and  plants 
tend  to  do  one  of  these  things;  some  tend  to  do  the 
other.  Both  are  adapted  to  light,  but  they  have 
become  adapted  in  different  ways.     Their  lives  be- 


30  Use  of  Motives 

come  very  different  in  consequence.  This  is  the 
beginning  of  choice  in  its  simplest  form.  In  human 
individuals  there  are  many  more  kinds  of  choice  than 
for  the  lower  animals.  They  become  very  rich  and 
varied,  and  consequently  it  comes  to  be  more  of  a 
problem  always  to  make  right  choices.  In  man, 
therefore,  the  higher  choices,  those  that  have  to  do 
with  the  higher  mental,  social,  moral,  and  spiritual 
problems  and  adjustments,  become  increasingly  im- 
portant and  increasingly  difficult.  And  yet  choices 
are  still  to  be  reduced  to  the  right  and  the  wrong,  to 
the  best  and  the  worst. 

We  saw  in  the  preceding  chapter  that  the  great 
purpose  of  religious  education  is  to  enable  the  indi- 
vidual to  have  the  disposition  and  the  ability  to  make 
right  choices  under  the  various  stimuli  of  his  sur- 
roundings. This  is  only  another  way  of  saying  that 
we  want  individuals  to  become  rightly  adapted  to  the 
whole  of  their  environment,  or  at  least  to  those 
great  elements  in  it  that  are  most  fundamental  to 
the  abundant  life.  This  is  the  object  of  life  and  of 
education  for  life. 

4.  The  beginnings  of  personality. 

In  the  beginnings  of  individual  Ufe  human  per- 
sonality consists  chiefly  of  the  following  things,  all 
of  which  have  been  inherited:  (1)  the  senses  through 
which  the  environment  acts  on  the  individual;  (2) 
certain  simple  but  all-important  tendencies,  instincts, 
and  appetites;  (3)  certain  capacities  which  are 
wholly  latent  at  first  but  come  into  action  with 


Some  Essential  Natural  Elements  31 

development;  (4)  simple  powers  of  muscular  action, 
by  which  responses  are  made;  and  (5)  a  sense  of 
satisfaction  or  dissatisfaction  growing  out  of  action. 
We  have  seen  that  the  external  influences  may  put 
this  machinery  of  personality  into  motion;  as,  for 
example,  when  we  put  our  finger  into  the  mouth  of  the 
recently  born  child  its  instinct  of  sucking,  aroused  by 
its  sense  of  touch,  produces  the  muscular  response  of 
sucking,  which  is  much  too  complex  to  be  ''  learned  " 
so  readily.  It  would  require  a  very  long  time  to  learn 
to  coordinate  all  the  muscles  necessary  to  do  this. 
The  sense  of  touch  merely  sets  off  this  complex,  well- 
formed  and  inherited  instinct.  But  this  does  not  tell 
the  whole  story  of  the  sucking  response.  If  the  child 
is  left  alone  for  a  while  certain  changes  take  place 
within  it  which  makes  the  child  hungry,  as  we  say. 
Then  it  seeks  to  get  something  into  its  mouth.  Its 
own  finger  may  be  put  there,  in  answer  this  time  to 
the  internal  stimulus  of  hunger,  or  it  may  even  go 
through  the  motions  of  sucking  with  nothing  in  the 
mouth.  In  one  case  something  in  the  child's  environ- 
ment aroused  the  sucking  instinct,  and  in  the  other 
an  internal  appetite  aroused  it.  In  our  own  case  the 
smell  or  sight  of  food  may  arouse  in  us  the  will  to  eat, 
or  hunger  within  may  stimulate  to  exactly  similar 
actions. 


w 


o 

f=4 


Some  Essential  Natural  Elements  33 

DISCUSSION  OF  FIGURE   1 

This  is  a  diagram  of  personality  at  birth.  There  are  inherited 
four  main  assets:  (1)  the  senses,  by  which  we  appreciate  the 
stimuU  of  the  outside  world  or  of  the  internal  appetites;  (2) 
the  muscular  apparatus  by  which  we  can  act;  and  (3)  internal 
nervous  connections  between  these,  which  determine  that  a  re- 
sponse, and  what  response,  shall  follow  a  stimulus.  These  nervous 
connections  (3),  including  the  brain,  are  already  endowed  at 
birth  with  (4)  certain  tendencies,  or  prejudices  as  we  might 
call  them,  which  predispose  toward  certain  actions.  These 
predispositions  we  call  instincts,  impulses.  The  response  either 
satisfies  the  tendency  or  it  does  not.  If  so,  action  stops  for  the 
time;  if  not,  action  probably  continues.  These  are  purely  in- 
herited, and  are  very  important  in  building  up  the  conscious 
personality.  Choice  at  this  stage  is  instinctive.  The  illustration 
of  the  sucking  child  (p.  31)  will  suggest  the  nature  of  personal 
response  at  this  stage.  The  arrows  show  the  course  of  events 
from  a  stimulus  to  a  response. 

Even  in  early  life,  then,  we  may  say  that  there  are 
two  important  stimulating  elements  producing  action : 
environment,  and  the  inherited  instincts  and 
tendencies.  We  are  creatures  of  our  instincts  and 
surroundings.  When  these  two  stimuli  act  together 
we  get  the  greatest  possible  influence  on  behavior  and 
on  personality.  When  external  stimuli  and  internal 
impulses  lead  in  the  same  direction  choice  is  practically 
determined,  and  choice  and  response  follow  very 
directly  and  naturally  upon  stimulation.  In  other 
words,  to  put  something  in  the  mouth  of  the  hungry 
infant  insures  the  instinctive  response  of  sucking. 
This  fact  has  tremendous  significance  in  all  education. 


34  Use  of  Motives 

The  accompanying  diagram  (Fig.  1)  suggests  the 
make-up  of  personality  in  this  early  stage. 

5.  The  enrichment  of  the  elements  of  personality. 

We  have  seen  that  the  organism  is  never  the  same 
after  responding  to  a  stimulus.  Every  time  a  stimulus 
works  on  through  personality  to  a  response,  there  are 
two  effects:  (1)  the  response  or  reaction  itself,  good 
or  bad;  and  (2)  the  internal  modification  of  personality 
due  to  the  stimulus  and  the  reaction.  These  inner 
changes  are  most  intimate  and  far-reaching,  and 
make  human  education  possible.  Of  course  the  senses 
themselves  are  educated  through  practise.  Similarly 
greater  skill  in  responding  will  come  to  the  organs 
of  expression  in  the  act  of  responding.  Both  of  these 
enter  into  education.  But  very  much  more  important 
still,  the  internal  instincts  and  tendencies  involved 
in  the  action  will  be  modified  by  any  such  reaction. 
They  may  be  strengthened  and  fixed,  or  weakened, 
depending  on  the  nature  of  the  experience  and  the 
outcome  of  the  response  in  furnisl^ng  comfort  or 
satisfaction. 

For  example,  let  us  return  to  the  sucking  babe. 
If  when  it  is  hungry  a  bottle  containing  milk  is  given 
it  and  it  gets  food  as  the  result  of  sucking,  the  child 
has  had  an  experience.  It  has  had  satisfaction  from 
the  act.  If  this  is  repeated  the  whole  reaction  is 
intensified  and  made  more  sure.  But  even  more; 
such  repetition  of  stimulus,  impulsive  response,  and 
satisfaction  results  in  three  most  important  things 
on  the  inside  of  personality:   (1)  the  habit  of  respond- 


Some  Essential  Natural  Elements  35 

ing  in  this  way  when  this  stimulus  is  appUed;  (2) 
the  reinforcement  of  the  impulse  until  it  becomes  a 
positive  desire  or  appetite;  and  (3)  ultimately  through 
consciousness  and  memory  the  formation  of  knowl- 
edge or  free  ideas  about  sucking  and  its  rewards.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  something  disagreeable  or  nauseat- 
ing were  given  to  the  child  every  time  it  sucked, 
without  doubt  the  whole  sucking  reflex  could  be 
broken  up  and  a  habit  of  refusing  to  suck  formed,  and 
an  association  with  the  act  of  ideas  of  aversion  instead 
of  pleasure.  This  simple  series  of  events  and  their 
results  are  at  the  basis  of  all  education  and  serve  to 
build  up  the  more  complex  elements  of  personaUty 
which  we  come  to  have. 

While  habits  are  formed,  impulses  modified,  and 
ideas  developed  by  repeating  such  experiences,  it  is 
interesting  to  notice  that  formation  of  habits  in  early 
life  takes  place  faster  than  the  formation  of  ideas. 
The  child  has  builded  up  many  good  and  bad  habits 
through  its  responding,  long  before  it  can  gain  enough 
free  ideas  through  experience  to  enable  it  to  control 
its  choices  thereby.  Indeed  this  is  largely  the  object 
of  our  ordinary  instruction,  —  to  furnish  to  the  young 
at  once  the  knowledge  which  the  race  has  accumulated 
through  its  experience,  so  as  to  save  the  child  the 
necessity  of  going  through  all  the  experience  and  of 
forming  all  the  habits  that  would  supply  it  with  these 
ideas. 

As  habits,  desires,  and  ideas  are  built  up  within, 
other  internal  factors  besides  the  mere  raw,  inherited 


36  Use  of  Motives 

instincts  thus  come  to  take  part  in  determining  what 
choices  and  responses  shall  be  made  to  the  various 
stimuli.  Personality  is  growing.  The  instincts  them- 
selves are  in  process  of  change,  and  they  are  producing 
still  other  qualities  that  will  further  modify  and 
control  them.  It  is  no  longer  true  that  we  are  wholly 
creatures  of  our  instincts  or  of  the  surroundings. 
Ideas  and  habits  and,  later,  judgment  and  ideals  and 
standards  are  developed  by  experience,  and  play  their 
part.  More  and  more  these  newer  and  higher  results 
of  experience  take  the  act  of  choosing  out  of  the 
almost  mechanical,  instinctive  place  it  has  in  early 
childhood  and  in  the  lower  animals;  they  make  it 
more  complex,  more  full  of  meaning,  more  character- 
ful. The  choices  of  the  young  child  have  no  moral 
value  whatever.  It  is  because  of  these  newer  qualities 
that  choices  come  to  have  moral  and  religious  meaning. 
The  example  of  the  sucking  child  will  serve  us 
again.  It  may  be  that  the  child  has  formed  the  bad 
habit  of  sucking  its  thumb,  and  this  has  persisted  for 
some  years.  Now  the  sucking  impulse  and  reaction 
is  normally  a  rather  fleeting  one.  It  ought  to  serve 
its  purpose  and  practically  be  lost  in  a  few  months. 
But  repetition  and  habit  have  strengthened  its  hold. 
It  is  kept  up  because  it  furnishes  a  certain  accustomed 
satisfaction.  The  child  will  choose  and  continue  this 
line  of  conduct  until  some  other  factors  counteract 
these  old  forces  in  control  of  choice.  We  may  try  to 
supply  these  other  factors  by  placing  stalls  on  the 
fingers,  by  putting  quinine  on  them,  or  other  similar 


Some  Essential  Natural  Elements  37 

device.  In  such  cases  we  are  wanting  to  substitute  a 
discomfort  for  the  satisfaction  and  thus  get  the  usual 
action  checked  or  inhibited.  Or  we  may  arouse  the 
child's  consciousness  to  the  fact  that  people  in  general 
disapprove  of  such  conduct  and  that  it  is  losing  the 
good  opinion  of  others  thereby.  If  its  desire  for  the 
approval  of  others  is  sufficiently  strong  we  may  get 
an  inhibition  by  introducing  a  stronger  and  higher 
desire.  In  the  same  way  rewards  and  punishments  or 
ideas  of  right  and  wrong  may  set  up  inhibitions  that 
will  enable  the  child  to  modify  its  choice. 

Diagram  2  will  illustrate  how  these  various  factors 
which  influence  choice  arise  out  of  the  primitive 
instinctive  impulses  and  experiences,  and  then  com- 
pete with  these  same  instincts  for  the  control  of  choice 
and  conduct,  —  all  for  the  enrichment  and  complica- 
tion of  the  steps  that  lie  between  stimulus  and  re- 
sponse. 

DISCUSSION  OF  FIGURE  2 

This  diagram  suggests  some  steps  in  the  development  of 
personaHty.  With  the  beginnings  indicated  in  Fig.  1,  we  are 
sure  to  get  an  instinctive  response  from  certain  stimuli.  After 
such  a  response  the  organism  is  not  the  same  again.  It  has  had 
an  experience.  If  the  action  gave  comfort  or  satisfaction^  it  would 
be  Ukely  to  be  repeated  under  similar  conditions.  If  not,  it 
would  be  less  Ukely  to  be  repeated.  Action  thus  reacts  in  per- 
sonality in  the  form  of  satisfaction  or  dissatisfaction.  (Follow 
the  course  of  the  arrows.)  Furthermore  there  are  many  of  these 
internal  tendencies  and  impulses.  That  which  is  strongest  at 
the  moment  will  win  against  the  others.  Experience  and  satis- 
faction will  help  determine  whether  this  stronger  impulse  will 
become  still  stronger  and  continue  to  win,  or  be  made  less  power* 


a 


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Some  Essential  Natural  Elements  39 

fill  and  possibly  be  inhibited  next  time.  Satisfactions  reinforcing 
the  impulses  raise  these  latter  into  positive  desires  or  appetites. 
Consciousness  and  memory  and  anticipation  give  these  desires  a 
powerful  place  in  life  and  lead  to  purposes.  Satisfying  experi- 
ences repeated  produce  habits  and  ideas.  By  knowledge,  the 
power  of  reason,  and  the  force  of  habit,  standards  are  erected 
within.  Standards  fused  with  desires  give  ideals.  All  of  these 
have  much  to  do  in  determining  action  through  their  effects  on 
choice,  decision,  and  will.  Purpose  is  virtually  a  general  choice, 
not  yet  carried  into  effect,  or  delayed,  —  a  kind  of  attitude  or 
prejudice  in  favor  of  a  certain  line  of  action.  It  is  complex  in  its 
origin,  made  up  of  many  of  the  steps  described  above.  In  turn 
it  becomes  a  living  medium  which  strengthens  or  vetoes  the 
special  appeals  that  strive  within  us  to  influence  choice. 

The  diagram  also  suggests  that,  whereas  at  the  outset  stimuli 
can  appeal  only  to  the  native  impulses,  after  this  personal 
development  has  taken  place,  appeal  may  be  made  directly  to 
conscious  desires  and  through  ideas  and  thinking. 

6.  Structure  of  mature  personality. 

Broadly  speaking,  our  mature  and  completed  per- 
sonality is  built  up  about  these  three  functions  which 
we  have  been  discussing:  (1)  the  reception  and 
appreciation  of  stimuli;  (2)  the  choice  of  response  in 
the  Hght  of  the  total  effect  of  these  stimuli  on  the 
individual;  and  (3)  the  response  itself.  We  have 
been  maintaining  that  the  chief  problem  in  the  edu- 
cation of  personality  is  so  to  develop  it  that  it  will 
desire  and  be  able  to  make  the  right  choice  of  responses 
under  all  combinations  of  stimulation  and  internal 
desires.  It  is  now  necessary  to  examine  a  little  more 
closely  the  factors  in  us  that  help  to  determine  choice. 
At  the  outset  it  is  largely  the  internal  desires,  and  the 


40  Use  of  Motives 

immediate  appeals  to  them  through  the  senses,  that 

settle  choices.    In  mature  life  determination  of  choice 

becomes  much  more  complex,  though  the  essential 

conditions  remain  the  same. 

The  accompanying  diagram  (Fig.  3),  which  must 

be  thought  of  merely  as  a  diagram  and  not  a  real 

picture  of  anything,  attempts  to  show  to  the  eye 

some  of  the  more  important  factors  in  this  reaction 

of  the  person  to  the  surroundings.     On  the  extreme 

left  we  imagine  the  environment  with  all  its  varied 

stimuli.    On  the  right  are  the  activities  and  behavior 

that   make   up   the  response.     The   rectangle   itself 

portrays  the  individual.     This  individual  connects 

or   associates   the   stimulus   and   the   response.      It 

furnishes  not  only  the  paths  for  the  passage  of  the 

impulses,  but  reinforcements  or  inhibitions  of  them  as 

well. 

DISCUSSION  OF  FIGURE  3 

This  diagram  shows  some  points  in  the  structure  and  operation 
of  mature  personaHty.  (Compare  with  Fig.  2.)  Personality  has 
three  main  parts:  (1)  the  receiving  portion  (receptors)  that  looks 
out  on  stimuli  (attention  and  appreciation  are  its  great  functions) ; 
(2)  a  responding  side  (effectors)  that  looks  toward  behavior  or 
response;  and  (3)  that  which  lies  between  stimulus  and  response 
whose  function  is  to  correlate  and  adjust  behavior  to  stimulus. 
This  third  region  is  where  our  real  personal  values  lie.  This  is 
where  we  grow  most.  We  may  possibly  improve  the  reception 
of  stimuli  and  certainly  the  skill  of  our  responses;  but  our  greatest 
gain  is  within.  We  have  at  the  beginning  only  the  instinctive 
impulses  and  desires.  We  have  seen  in  Fig.  2  how  these  gradually 
give  rise  to  the  complex  internal  conditions  of  maturity.  There 
are  at  maturity  three  great  groups  of  internal  qualities  by  which 


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42  Use  of  Motives 

we  can  appeal  to  choice:  (1)  the  impulses,  which  are  what  we 
inherit,  plus  whatever  change  has  come  to  them  from  our  experi- 
ences; (2)  the  desires  that  we  build  up  as  the  result  of  the  opera- 
tion of  increasing  consciousness  acting  upon  our  impulses,  satis- 
factions, etc. ;  (3)  the  ideas  and  the  powers  of  intellect  and  reason 
that  come  to  us  through  teaching  or  through  experience.  These 
three  things  acting  singly  or  together  are  the  chief  positive 
sponsors  and  inspirers  of  choices  and  actions.  While  ideas  and 
the  power  of  using  them  come  from  experience,  it  is  possible  by 
teaching  (a  form  of  stimulus)  to  impart  ideas  which  are  not  the 
outcome  of  the  experience  of  the  individual.  There  is  often  a  real 
conflict  between  ideas  (judgment)  and  desires,  and  ideas  may 
retard  or  inhibit  the  natural  effect  of  desires  on  choice.  This  is 
the  point  at  which  life  becomes  moral.  Habits,  standardized 
modes  of  thinking,  feeling  and  acting;  standards,  chiefly  a  matter 
of  knowledge  and  judgment;  ideals,  made  up  both  of  ideas  and 
desires;  and  purposes,  which  are  really  delayed  responses,  may 
reinforce  or  inhibit  the  various  appeals  to  choice.  Which  they 
do  depends  upon  the  factors  that  have  made  them^  in  the  history 
of  the  individual.  All  these  various  contents  of  personality  are 
open  to  education.  We  are  confining  ourselves  too  largely  to  the 
training  of  the  intellectual  (ideas)  and  to  skill  in  expression. 
More  attention  must  be  given  to  the  development  of  right  im- 
pulses and  desires  as  well,  that  these  may  replace  the  poorer  ones. 
The  arrows  in  this  figure  show  the  general  course  of  the  in- 
fluence of  the  various  factors,  and  not  their  development  as  in 
Fig.  2.  It  will  be  noticed  that  desire  and  satisfaction  are  emotions 
which  influence  choice  and  conduct;  but  at  the  same  time  they 
also  look  out  toward  the  income.  For  example,  hunger  and  curiosity 
are  receptive  emotions  rather  than  expressive,  although  they  do 
lead  incidentally  to  action  as  a  means  of  realization. 


One  aspect  of  the  person  looks  out  toward  stim- 
ulus. It  seeks  and  receives.  This  includes  the  senses, 
through  which  the  external  stimuh  reach  the  person, 


Some  Essential  Natural  Elements  43 

and  the  internal  desires  and  appreciations  that  make 
the  incoming  impressions  appeahng  or  the  reverse. 
On  the  other  side,  looking  out  toward  action  and 
behavior,  is  the  apparatus  of  responding.  Response 
is  merely  a  matter  of  muscular  action  for  the  most 
part,  though  back  of  it  are  the  great  personal  acts  of 
choosing  and  deciding.  These  two  sides,  —  the 
receiving  and  the  responding,  —  taken  thus  simply- 
together,  are  known  as  the  sensori-motor  apparatus. 
The  normal  result  of  a  stimulus  on  the  sensory  side 
is  a  response  on  the  motor  side.  Income  naturally 
expects  outgo.  Impression  should  be  followed  by 
expression.  This  is  the  normal  reaction.  But  it 
makes  a  great  deal  of  difference  just  what  behavior 
shall  follow  from  the  stimulus  furnished  by  a  par- 
ticular situation;  from  a  simple  stimulus  or  from  a 
complex  combination  of  stimuli.  Will  it  be  right  or 
wrong?  good  or  bad?  and  what  decides  the  goodness 
or  badness  of  a  response?  The  inner  core  of  per- 
sonaHty  lying  between  the  receiving  and  the  respond- 
ing parts  is  responsible  for  the  real  character  of  the 
responses.    This  demands  our  careful  study. 

7.  Choice  is  the  critical  thing  in  personality. 

In  such  a  personality  as  we  have  been  describing 
it  is  in  choosing  how  to  act  that  the  individual  really 
expresses  himself.  Here  the  sum  total  of  external 
influences,  of  internal  desires,  of  instincts,  of  knowl- 
edge, of  habits,  and  of  ideals  are  balanced,  and  the 
personality  expresses  its  real  self  by  deciding  what  to 
do.    This  is  not  a  special  faculty,  but  is  the  whole  of 


44  Use  of  Motives 

personality  at  a  critical  stage  in  its  work.  While  in 
other  persons  we  can  see  actions  only,  and  can  read 
choices  only  by  these  actions,  it  is  choosing  or 
willing  which  really  measures  the  character  of  the 
person.  This  is  the  point  where  the  personality  shows 
the  degree  of  its  appreciation  of  all  its  own  varied 
resources  to  determine  its  action.  It  is  clear  then,  as 
we  have  said,  that  the  education  in  the  making  of 
right  choices  is  the  objective  point  of  all  moral  and 
religious  training.  The  morality  of  any  being  comes 
out  in  this  moment  of  choosing  in  the  light  of  all  the 
resources  of  the  person.  If  this  act  is  wrong,  nothing 
else  can  count  for  right.  It  is  immoral  to  make  any 
other  than  the  best  possible  choice.  Moral  efficiency 
is  really  shown  by  the  disposition,  the  abihty,  and  the 
habit  of  making  right,  —  that  is  to  say  the  best,  — 
choices.  How  then  can  we  as  teachers  reach  in  and 
develop  this  power  and  disposition  toward  righteous 
choice? 

8.  Two  chief  ways  of  influencing  choice. 

This  crowning  power  which  must  be  developed  is 
purely  within.  We  have  no  power  of  reaching  it 
directly  from  without.  Furthermore,  it  is  the  essential 
mark  of  choice  that,  to  have  any  meaning,  it  must  be 
one*s  own.  Hence,  if  we  could  force  choices  directly 
from  without,  the  result  would  have  no  personal  value 
to  the  individual.  It  is  even  more  true  of  choosing 
than  of  the  other  personal  powers  that  they  develop 
through  self -activity;  because  choosing  is,  as  has  been 
said,  the  most  distinctive  act  of  the  self. 


Some  Essential  Natural  Elements  45 

In  reality  there  are  two  objects  in  view  in  getting 
choices:  there  is  the  task  of  getting  the  right  indi- 
vidual, isolated  choices,  and  that  of  getting  the  habit 
and  disposition  of  right  choosing.  The  latter  is  of 
course  the  great  purpose.  There  is,  however,  no 
way  to  get  the  habit  of  right  choosing  other  than 
through  practise  in  right  choosing.  This  means 
repeating  the  individual  choices  until  the  habit  is 
fixed. 

In  the  task  of  guiding  or  influencing  choice  in  such 
a  way  as  to  insure  that  the  self  shall  still  be  the  actual 
chooser,  there  are  just  two  ways  of  proceeding:  (1) 
by  changing  the  stimuh  (that  is,  by  varying  the 
impressions  we  bring  to  bear,  —  the  teaching,  ex- 
ample, influence,  appeals  to  the  various  internal 
impulses,  and  the  like,  —  we  can  so  modify  the  steps 
that  lead  up  to  choice  as  to  influence  its  character) ; 
or  (2)  the  responses  or  behavior  may  be  changed  in 
various  external  ways,  and  in  this  way  the  habits  and 
other  steps  leading  up  to  choices  may  be  educated, 
because  conduct  reacts  on  all  the  steps  leading  up  to  it. 
Choices  are  educated  by  action  and  by  the  experiences 
growing  out  of  action  just  as  really  as  by  impression. 
The  act  of  choosing  develops  the  power  and  disposition 
to  choose  and  guides  future  choices.  Both  the 
process  of  stimulation  or  instructing  and  the  guidance 
of  actions  are  valuable  methods  of  educating  choices. 
They  are  complementary. 

9.  Training  choices  by  impression. 

This  is  the  classic  mode  of  teaching.     It  implies 


46  Use  of  Motives 

bringing  information,  appeals,  and  examples,  and  so 
presenting  all  this  that  the  original  desires  and  in- 
stincts may  be  modified  through  new  desires  con- 
nected with  the  development  of  knowledge,  reasoning, 
standards  and  ideals.  At  the  outset  some  of  the 
instinctive  impulses  and  desires  are  strong,  and  ideas, 
are  wanting.  By  giving  prematurely  these  ideas  from 
the  stock  of  human  experience  we  can  change  the 
nature  of  the  total  appeal  to  personality  and  modify 
choices.  Only  in  this  way  can  we  bring  the  whole  of 
God's  work  in  history  to  bear  upon  the  life  of  today. 
It  is  the  way  whereby  we  make  the  example  of  pres- 
ent-day heroes  influence  the  lives  of  the  young.  It 
is  the  method  of  literature,  of  poetry,  of  biography, 
of  appeal,  of  exhortation,  of  instruction.  It  is  of 
course  essential  that  all  this  shall  be  done  suitably 
and  in  a  graded  way. 

In  our  Sunday-school  work  we  have  for  the  most 
part  stopped  at  this  point.  We  have  striven  to  reach 
the  emotions  and  the  purposes  by  making  the  stimuli 
as  suitable  and  as  convincing  as  possible.  This  is 
all  very  valuable  and  important,  but  it  is  not  enough. 
We  have  found  that  we  do  not  hold  to  permanent 
moral  and  religious  choices  fifty  per  cent  of  those  who 
enter  our  Sunday  schools. 

10.  Training  choices  through  expression. 

Choice  is  built  up  from  instincts,  experiences, 
habits,  ideas  and  the  like,  but  it  also  looks  out  on 
conduct.  We  have  found  out  in  secular  education 
that  we  ''  learn  by  doing."    This  is  the  reason  why 


Some  Essential  Natural  Elements  47 

we  teach  biology  by  field  and  laboratory  work  rather 
than  by  a  text-book  merely.  This  is  the  meaning  of 
clinics  in  medical  schools,  practise  teaching  in  normal 
schools,  and  shops  and  laboratories  everywhere.  The 
response  which  personality  makes  to  conditions  does 
more  to  educate  it  than  any  amount  of  instruction  can 
do  without  response.  While  choice  is  influenced  by 
the  knowledge  and  desires  which  lead  to  it,  choice 
really  looks  forward  into  action  and  response  and 
satisfaction,  rather  than  backward.  What  we  do 
therefore  reacts  upon  our  choices.  Choice  cannot 
escape  the  consequences  of  its  failure  or  success  as 
measured  by  the  results  of  action.  The  test  of  the 
rightness  and  wrongness  of  the  choice  is  found  in  the 
total  experiences  and  satisfactions  connected  with  the 
outcome.  If  choices  give  satisfaction,  on  the  whole, 
they  are  likely  to  be  repeated.  If  they  bring  dis- 
comfort they  are  not  likely  to  be  repeated.  Thus  it 
comes  about  that  the  actions  growing  out  of  our 
choices  educate  us  most  profoundly  and  automa- 
tically. 

In  our  Sunday  schools  definite  effort  to  insure  right 
choices  through  expressive  work,  designed  to  give 
practical  exercise  in  the  art  of  choosing  right,  is  all 
but  unknown.  Practise  of  right  choosing  and  acting 
in  response  to  our  teaching  is  left  largely  to  chance. 
There  is  no  question  that  we  must  find  a  way  to 
secure  moral  expression  of  choice  in  right  and  fine 
actions  if  we  are  going  to  succeed  in  moral  and  religious 
education. 


48  Use  of  Motives 

11.  Real  moral  teaching  involves  both  impression  and 
expression. 

We  have  seen  that  the  common  and  classical  method 
of  teaching,  both  secular  and  rehgious,  has  been 
largely  that  of  making  appeals,  giving  instruction, 
producing  impressions,  —  leaving  the  practical  appli- 
cation of  this  teaching  to  life  largely  to  unconscious 
and  haphazard  surroundings.  We  have  thought  that 
our  impressions  would  last,  —  forgetting  that  an 
impression  which  works  through  to  a  satisfactory 
expression  much  outlasts  any  other  sort.  In  many 
secular  types  of  education  we  have  seen  a  very  strik- 
ing revolt  toward  the  more  practical  method  of 
teaching  by  practise,  —  of  learning  by  doing.  The  re- 
volt against  the  dead  languages  and  some  of  the  older 
subjects  and  in  favor  of  the  sciences  and  the  voca- 
tional subjects  is  not  merely  because  of  the  direct 
utility  of  the  subjects,  but  in  part  because  the  latter 
evoke  a  more  complete  and  practical  personal  reac- 
tion.   They  provide  for  expression. 

Without  doubt  both  methods  of  teaching  have 
great  values;  but  each  is  full  of  weakness  standing 
alone.  Perfect  teaching  involves '  giving  the  best 
possible  stimulus  in  the  way  of  appeals,  instruction, 
impression,  and  then  finding  ways  to  see  that  these 
new  elements  of  income,  if  accepted  by  personality, 
are  consciously  caused  to  express  themselves  until 
the  power  of  choice  is  strengthened  by  the  satis- 
factions of  right  behavior.  In  right  teaching  there  is 
thus  a  complete  personal  reaction:    (1)  impression; 


Some  Essential  Natural  Elements  49 

(2)  self -active  choice;  and  (3)  the  expression  of  this 
choice  in  action.  It  is  in  this  way  that  actual  adjust- 
ment of  the  internal  nature  is  made  to  the  external 
conditions.  Personality  is  kept  appreciative  of  its 
income,  able  to  make  right  choices,  and  responsive  to 
the  conditions  of  life. 

12.  Results  of  impression  and  expression  on  the 
other  internal  qualities. 

This  complete  mental  reaction  spoken  of  in  the 
preceding  paragraph  increases  through  repetition  the 
strength  and  certainty  of  choice,  but  it  also  educates 
other  internal  qualities,  that  help  insure  the  soundness 
of  later  choices.  Desires,  for  example,  look  out  toward 
the  objects  that  stimulate  and  attract,  —  as  clothes, 
foods,  property.  But  equally,  desires  look  forward 
to  choice  and  action  and  satisfactions  coming  from 
action.  For  example,  one's  desire  may  look  distinctly 
toward  work  or  play,  or  to  some  other  active  form  of 
satisfaction  quite  as  much  as  to  the  satisfactions 
of  the  senses.  The  act  of  choosing  and  the  pride  of 
right  choice  may  become  a  positive  desire  and  source 
of  comfort.  Because  of  these  things  the  very  act  of 
choosing,  in  a  complete  mental  reaction,  is  going  to 
increase  or  diminish  these  original  desires  that  lead 
up  to  choice. 

In  a  quite  similar  way  the  experience  that  comes 
from  this  complete  personal  reaction  is  stored,  as  we 
have  seen,  in  the  form  of  habits  and  ideas.  Habit  is 
a  conservative  quality  and  tends  to  make  choices 
which  at  first  are  difficult  and  very  conscious,  auto- 


50  Use  of  Motives 

matically  sure  and  certain.  That  is  to  say,  habits 
tend  to  give  to  our  consciously  acquired  choices  some 
of  the  sureness  which  our  primitive  instinctive  choices 
had  at  the  beginning  of  hfe.  Ideas,  knowledge,  and 
judgment  that  come  from  chosen  lines  of  action  are 
also  sure  to  modify  the  internal  desires,  and  later 
choices.  Finally,  we  cannot  be  stimulated  and  re- 
spond without  having  certain  modifications  of  our 
standards  or  ideals  of  conduct.  Gradually  our  whole 
purposes  are  colored  by  this  process.  All  these 
changes  within  us,  brought  about  by  our  chosen  lines 
of  action,  in  their  turn  profoundly  influence  all  later 
choices.  Right  choosing  followed  by  satisfaction 
not  alone  educates  choice  and  action,  but  it  educates 
all  those  guiding  qualities  of  personality  that  lead  up 
to  and  influence  the  choices. 

From  this  concrete,  but  incomplete,  picture  of  the 
action  of  personality  the  teacher  will  readily  see  that 
we  are  largely  neglecting  the  more  important  half  of 
moral  and  religious  education,  namely,  the  expres- 
sive side,  even  in  those  Sunday  schools  where  the 
impressive  work  is  of  the  best.  What  we  must  learn 
to  do  is  to  couple  completely  graded  instruction  with 
completely  graded  expression  in  moral  and  religious 
matters.  Impression  without  suitable  expression  in 
morals  and  religion  gives  a  theoretical  hold  on  both 
which  is  liable  to  be  at  once  hypocritical  and  snob- 
bish; expression  without  adequate  instruction  leads 
to  formalism,  literalism,  and  to  behavior  unco- 
ordinated with  the  best  standards  of  the  race. 


Some  Essential  Natural  Elements  51 

Topics  for  Further  Study  and  Discussion 

1.  Show  how  our  response  to  our  environment 
changes  us.  Enumerate  some  of  the  internal  changes 
that  come  from  responding  to  our  stimuH.  If  one  is 
stimulated  to  deep  anger,  illustrate  how  the  choices 
and  actions  we  make  (responses)  modify  us  for  all 
time. 

2.  Some  of  the  important  values  lie  in  the  fact  that 
for  the  most  part  even  humans  must  adjust  their 
lives  properly  to  meet  their  surroundings,  rather  than 
the  reverse. 

3.  What  is  there  for  us  educationally  in  the  other 
side  of  the  truth?  Human  beings  can  in  some  degree 
change  their  surroundings.  They  can  move  away 
from  trouble,  poverty,  crime,  temptation,  etc. 

4.  Define  education  in  terms  of  adjustment: 
to  gravity,  to  food  and  drink,  to  other  people,  to 
truth,  to  right,  to  duty,  to  God.  Why,  in  becoming 
adjusted,  are  we  disposed  to  lose  adjustability? 

5.  Evidences  that  we  really  inherit  impulses,  in- 
stincts, tendencies,  temperament,  disposition,  mental 
and  spiritual  capacities,  and  the  like. 

Suggestive  Questions 

Why  must  organisms,  including  humans,  become 
adapted  to  external  conditions?  In  what  ways  may 
we  become  adapted  to  cold?  To  new  neighbors? 
To  bad  companions?  To  trouble?  To  new  truth? 
What  are  the  essentials  of  right  choice  and  of  wrong 


52  Use  of  Motives 

choice?  Why  is  choice  such  an  important  thing? 
Why  is  it  such  a  measure  of  character?  Why  is  it 
even  a  better  index  than  action?  Give  evidences, 
from  your  knowledge  of  young  children,  that  it  is 
easy  to  form  whole  groups  of  bad  (or  good)  habits 
before  the  child  could  possibly  get  from  experience 
the  ideas  that  would  help  him  prevent  (or  encourage) 
the  habits.  What  are  the  corollaries  of  this  fact  in 
human  life?  Why  is  it  peculiarly  essential  that 
choices  shall  be  determined  as  much  as  possible  from 
the  inside  f 

Some  Practical  Problems 

1.  The  early  formation  of  habits  in  babies.  Do 
you  think  it  possible  to  control  in  very  large  degree 
the  formation  of  habits  in  very  young  children: 
e.g.,  habits  of  sleeping;  of  feeding;  of  crying  or  not 
crying;  of  lying  quietly  or  being  taken  up;  of  obedi- 
ence; of  confidence;  of  consideration  for  others;  of 
expression  of  affection?  What  are  the  necessary 
steps?  Why  do  we  so  often  fail?  Do  you  believe  this 
has  any  relation  to  morals  and  religion?  Can  the 
Sunday  school  be  of  any  help  to  parents,  present  and 
future,  at  this  point  ? 

2.  When  a  strong  native  impulse  is  appealed  to 
by  an  attractive  external  situation,  choice  is  sure. 
Give  some  concrete  illustrations  of  this.  If  the  situ- 
ation is  undesirable,  how  can  we  overcome  it?  How 
can  we  use  the  fact  stated  above  for  educational 
purposes? 


Some  Essential  Natural  Elements  63 

3.  Let  young  men  ''Sow  their  wild  oats"  (?). 
Such  advice  simply  means  to  let  youth  indulge  its 
internal  impulses,  with  little  or  no  external  help,  and 
build  up  the  bad  habits  that  flow  from  such  choices; 
feeling  reasonably  sure  that  ultimately  ideas  will 
grow  up  from  these  experiences  that  will  cause  the 
youth  to  realize  that  they  do  not  really  satisfy.  Then 
he  will  try  to  break  up  the  bad  habits  because  of  his 
convictions,  and  make  his  choices  in  the  light  of  his 
own  results.  Analyze  this  concrete  suggestion;  show 
why  it  is  vicious ;  suggest  what  is  the  sane  procedure 
of  adults.  Apply  the  principle  to  the  education  of 
children  generally. 

References 

Bagley:    Educational  Values.     The  Macmillan  Co., 

N.  Y.    $1.50 
DuBois:    The    Natural  Way.     Fleming  H.   Revell 

Co.,  N.  Y.    $1.25 
Galloway:    Biology  of  Sex  for  Parents  and  Teachers. 

D.  C.  Heath  &  Co.,  N.  Y.    .75 
Weigh:    The    Pupil    and    the    Teacher.      Lutheran 

Publication  Society,  Philadelphia.    .50 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  MOTIVATION  IN  EDU- 
CATION 

1.  The  impelling  nature  of  desires  in  life. 

We  have  seen  in  the  preceding  chapter  that  the 
natural  instincts,  impulses,  and  desires  which  come 
to  us  through  inheritance  are  the  earliest  spurs  to 
conduct  in  childhood.  These  desires  all  point  to 
satisfactions,  and  inspire  to  action  by  which  the  self 
is  builded  up.  They  are  essentially  selfish  therefore. 
They  include  desire  for  food,  desire  for  comfort, 
desire  for  action,  for  possession,  and  the  like.  These 
desires  drive  us  as  humans  to  do  what  we  do. 
These  impulses,  and  others  which  succeed  and  sup- 
plement and  replace  them  through  education  and 
growth,  furnish  our  motive  power  all  through  life. 
They  are  close  to  what  we  call  *^  motives."  It  is  be- 
cause of  these  internal  desires  and  impulses  that  out- 
side influences  have  any  appeal  to  us  and  arouse  us  to 
definite  choices  and  actions.  Through  desires,  knowl- 
edge and  standards  become  fused  into  ideals  and 
purposes. 

2.  These  natural  impulses  and  desires  are  legitimate. 

Even  among  intelligent  people  it  has  been  felt  that 

these  initial  primitive  desires  and  instincts  of  man 

ss 


06  Use  of  Motives 

must  be  of  the  devil,  and  intrinsically  evil;  that  they 
must  therefore  be  combated,  and  changed  or  eradi- 
cated. Their  sole  value  has  been  thought  to  lie  in 
the  fact  that  they  furnish  the  individual  something 
to  struggle  against,  and  thus  lead  indirectly  to  charac- 
ter. It  has  been  considered  that  there  must  be  some- 
thing wrong  therefore  in  those  things  which  people  do 
spontaneously  and  joyously,  and  some  special  virtue 
in  doing  things  that  are  disagreeable  and  distasteful. 
On  the  contrary,  it  is  the  view  of  the  modern  student 
of  education  that  every  one  of  these  early  impulses 
and  desires  may  make  sound  and  valuable  contri- 
butions to  the  growing  personality;  that  they  are 
given  us  by  God  and  exist  for  this  very  purpose. 
They  represent  the  best  contribution  which  the 
past,  through  inheritance,  has  made  to  us.  To  be 
sure  they  all  look  toward  personal  gratification  and 
are  therefore  selfish.  But  it  is  because  of  this  very 
promise  of  gratification  that  they  incite  us  to  action. 
Thus  they  contribute  directly  to  the  building  up  of 
the  self;  and  the  development  of  self-hood  is  the  first 
step  in  personal  growth.  It  is  true  that  these  desires 
and  impulses  may  be  over-used  and  run  riot  and  be- 
come destructive  of  sound  personality;  but  this  is 
in  no  wise  an  argument  against  their  proper  function- 
ing. / .. 

3.  The  attitude  of  the  educator  toward  these  desires. 

If  this  view  of  the  purpose  and  value  of  the  in- 
stinctive impulses  is  correct,  it  is  quite  clear  that  the 
duty  of  the  educator  and  his  method  of  work  will  be 


The  Principle  of  Motivation  57 

very  different  from  what  is  common  under  the  older 
view.  It  becomes  his  task  to  use  and  appeal  to  these 
desires  and  tendencies,  rather  than  to  repress  them,  as 
they  appear  and  become  functional  in  the  individual, 
in  order  that  each  may  make  its  right  contribution  to 
character.  The  proper  use  of  them  implies  several 
things.  Some  of  the  instincts  are  rightfully  transient, 
and  ought  to  be  allowed  to  make  their  contribution 
and  then  give  way  to  higher  ones.  This  is  true  of 
the  sucking  impulse.  Take  for  example,  also,  the 
impulse  to  fight  or  the  instinct  of  fear.  We  will  all 
allow  that  neither  of  these  in  its  original  crude  form 
should  become  a  strong  permanent  state  of  mind  in 
a  socialized  individual;  and  yet  both  impulses  can 
be  shown  to  have  certain  value  in  character  if  allowed 
to  play  only  in  emergencies  and  gradually  to  pass 
away  through  disuse,  or  be  transformed  into  some- 
thing higher  and  more  permanent.  To  over-use  and 
over-stress  either  of  these  would  lead  it  to  a  strength 
which  would  be  unwholesome. 

Other  impulses  should  persist,  but  naturally  should 
diminish  in  strength  with  the  fuller  development  of 
character.  Such  are  the  desire  for  ownership,  the 
spirit  of  rivalry,  and  the  like.  Still  others,  equally 
natural  and  instinctive,  ought  to  grow  and  develop, 
though  often  changed  in  content,  all  through  life. 
Such  are  curiosity,  desire  for  leadership,  the  impulse 
to  share  and  serve,  together  with  many  others.  The 
genius  of  all  these  is  that  they  give  impulse  and 
pleasure  and  satisfaction  to  action  and  thus  tend  to 


58  Use  of  Motives 

secure  the  repetition  of  the  choices  and  actions  which 
they  inspire.  It  is  the  task  of  the  teacher  to  try  to 
understand  these  various  natural  motives  to  action, 
know  when  they  should  appear  in  life,  know  what 
contribution  we  should  expect  from  each,  and  find 
out  how  to  cause  them  so  to  weaken  or  increase  as  will 
be  best  for  right  character.  Some  should  be  fostered 
and  coaxed,  stressed  and  enriched  by  continual 
practise;  some  require  only  a  start  and  should  be 
emphasized  only  during  certain  very  Umited  periods 
of  life;  some  should  be  kept  dormant  or  allowed  to 
go  into  disuse;  some  should  be  smothered  or  have 
more  permanent  desires  substituted  for  them  as 
promptly  as  possible  after  they  have  done  their 
work;  some  should  be  repressed  by  the  early  culti- 
vation of  inhibitive  tendencies. 

6.  The  meaning  of  motivation. 

All  of  this  convinces  the  modern  educator  that  we 
get  more  physical,  mental,  moral,  and  spiritual  growth 
and  development  out  of  those  activities  that  appeal 
to  the  natural  impulses  and  thus  give  pleasure  and 
satisfaction.  We  deny  that  there  is  anything  of  value 
in  making  activities  unattractive  and  forbidding. 
Any  subject  or  situation  will  contribute  to  the  edu- 
cation of  the  child  in  proportion  to  the  naturalness 
and  intensity  of  the  motives  driving  the  child  to  the 
task.  Everything  we  do  for  people  or  that  they  do 
for  themselves  will  have  its  value  increased  if  it 
appeals  powerfully  to  some  of  their  strong  and  natural 
desires,  instincts,  and  tendencies. 


The  Principle  of  Motivation  69 

The  reasons  for  the  superiority  of  these  results  he 
in  the  fact  that,  in  this  way,  the  child  is  more  com- 
pletely enlisted;  it  has  more  zest  and  enthusiasm; 
its  concentration  and  control  of  its  whole  nature, 
both  receptive  and  active,  is  greater;  there  is  less 
likelihood  of  arousing  antagonism  against  the  wishes 
of  the  parent  or  teacher  and  thus  dissipating  power; 
better  attention  means  better  retention  and  assimila- 
tion and  mastery  of  facts,  and  more  complete  skill. 
All  this  implies  that  the  first  task  of  a  teacher  in  any 
realm,  in  order  to  get  best  results,  is  to  find  what  will 
arouse,  on  the  part  of  the  child,  the  greater  interest 
in,  and  the  most  vital  motives  for  undertaking  and 
mastering,  any  task.  It  means  first  of  all  to  get  the 
child  really  to  desire  to  do  the  thing.  It  means  that 
everything  shall  be  planned  so  that  the  child  shall 
have,  if  it  is  possible,  an  immediate,  a  real,  and  natural 
satisfaction  both  in  the  doing  and  in  the  result  when 
it  is  done.  This  is  what  the  school  men  mean  by 
motivation.  It  involves  self-activity  through  internal 
motives  which  must  be  those  most  real  and  vital  to 
the  child  at  his  grade  of  development. 

This  by  no  means  suggests  that  the  student  is 
never  to  do  anything  difficult  or  disagreeable,  or  that 
all  such  tasks  are  to  be  made  artificially  pleasant  and 
easy.  The  thing  we  seek  is  internal  and  not  external. 
It  does  mean,  however,  that  no  real  pedagogical  end 
is  ever  gained  by  making  a  naturally  easy  or  interest- 
ing task  artificially  difficult,  since  there  are  enough 
such  already  to  serve  every  purpose.    It  does  mean 


60  Use  of  Motives 

that  there  is  great  loss  in  having  any  task  so  distaste- 
ful that  internal  motives  sufficient  for  its  accomplish- 
ment cannot  be  found.  It  means  that  the  pupil  and 
teacher  must  find  for  every  disagreeable  and  difficult 
task  some  natural  motives  in  the  life  of  the  child 
which  will  make  it  seem  worth  while  to  overcome  the 
difficulty,  and  thus  make  for  more  total  satisfaction 
in  the  doing.  Motivation  consists  not  in  diminishing 
the  task  but  in  increasing  the  motive  for  performing 
the  task  and  the  satisfaction  in  the  result.  It  does 
not  mean  to  make  tasks  more  easy,  but  to  make 
them  more  appealing.  We  must  select  tasks  that 
appeal  to  present  motives,  and  develop  motives  that 
will  meet  necessary  tasks.  This  is  exactly  the  dif- 
ference between  play  and  drudgery.  Normally  play 
is  sufficiently  motivated.  To  the  young  child  work 
must  be  motivated  or  it  is  drudgery.  The  object  of 
motivation  is  to  prevent  drudgery,  not  to  eliminate 
work.  Difficulty  properly  motivated  is  very  educa- 
tive;  drudgery  is  not. 

5.  Relation  of  "  motivation  "  to  some  other  watch- 
words of  the  teacher. 

It  will  be  seen  at  once  by  teachers  who  have  kept 
in  touch  with  educational  ideas  that  motivation  is 
closely  related  to  several  fruitful  doctrines  of  recent 
times.  The  "  doctrine  of  interest,"  the  ''  point  of 
contact  in  teaching,"  ''  making  the  pupil  central," 
and  *'  gradation  "  are  all  akin  to  the  principle  of 
motivation.  The  latter,  however,  means  more  than 
any  or  all  of  them  as  usually  understood.    It  points 


The  Principle  of  Motivation  61 

to  an  active,  conscious,  and  systematic  use  of  all  the 
driving  internal  motives  of  childhood  and  youth  to 
arouse  interest  and  to  furnish  contact. 

The  principles  underlying  the  grading  of  our  lessons 
both  in  school  and  Sunday  school  are  closely  related 
to  motivation.  It  is  the  uniform  testimony  of  those 
who  have  intelligently  used  the  graded  Sunday-school 
lessons  that  they  are  more  easily  motivated  than  the 
old  uniform  lessons.  Motivation  means  rather  more 
than  we  usually  include  in  gradation.  Complete 
gradation  in  education  means  the  gradation  of  the 
matter  of  instruction,  of  the  method  of  its  presentation, 
of  the  form  of  the  expression  resulting  from  the  in- 
struction, of  the  emotional  appeals,  and  of  the  satis- 
factions that  flow  from  the  action.  Long  ago  we 
recognized  that  the  general  method  of  instruction 
must  be  graded  to  the  state  of  development  of  the 
child.  Even  the  uniform  Sunday-school  lessons 
recognized  this.  The  recent  grading  of  our  Sunday- 
school  lessons  is  an  effort  to  grade  the  matter  to  the 
development  of  intelligence.  As  yet  we  have  done 
practically  nothing  in  moral  and  religious  education 
to  find  the  modes  of  expression  which  are  thoroughly 
suited  to  the  personal  internal  states  of  developing 
children.  Motivation  is  really  an  effort  to  grade  the 
choices  and  activities  of  child  life  to  the  states  of 
emotional  development  and  to  the  personal  satis- 
factions of  which  the  child  is  capable.  Some  day  we 
shall  understand  that  it  is  even  more  important  to 
grade  our  appeals  to  emotions,  to  motives,  and  for 


62  Use  of  Motives 

expression  than  it  is  to  suit  matter  to  the  intellectual 
capacity  of  the  child. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  to  imply  that  the  fundamental 
idea  in  motivation  is  new,  or  that  we  have  done 
nothing  in  this  regard  in  the  past.  All  good  teachers 
have  in  some  degree  unconsciously  recognized  the 
need  and  tried  to  meet  it.  What  we  have  recently 
come  to  see  is  the  vital  necessity  of  finding  and  using 
in  a  deliberate  and  conscious  way  all  the  strong 
emotions  and  impulses  that  are  most  dominant  and 
worth  cultivating  in  the  nature  of  the  child  at  the 
various  stages  of  its  development.  Motivation  has 
been  artificial  and  half-hearted;  it  must  become 
genuine  and  natural  and  thoroughgoing. 

6.  The  two-fold  test  of  the  value  of  a  natural  impulse. 

As  suggested  above,  the  doctrine  of  motivation  does 
not  imply  that  all  impulses  are  of  equal  value.  In 
estimating  whether  we  should  appeal  to  certain 
youthful  motives  and  desires  in  getting  the  whole- 
hearted alliance  of  the  child,  at  least  two  things  must 
be  taken  into  account.  In  the  first  place,  we  must 
decide  upon  the  efficiency  of  any  particular  impulse 
in  accomplishing  the  immediate  response  we  seek. 
For  example,  fear  might  be  the  most  effective  possible 
motive  in  securing  a  particular  line  of  conduct.  It 
might  be  that  love  or  desire  to  serve  would  not  obtain 
the  proper  conduct  at  all.  While  present  in  some 
degree  they  might  not  be  strong  enough  to  insure  right 
choices.  And  yet,  in  spite  of  this,  it  does  not  follow 
that  fear,  although  an  efficient  motive,  would  be  the 


The  Principle  of  Motivation  63 

best  to  use.  We  must  consider,  in  the  second  place, 
what  would  be  the  permanent  result  in  the  quality 
of  personality  from  the  use  and  development  of  this 
particular  motive.  In  other  words,  while  we  must 
look  for  immediate  outer  results  in  our  appeal  to 
motives,  it  is  even  more  important  that  we  recognize 
the  final  reaction  in  personality  of  the  exercise  of  any 
one  of  the  instinctive  qualities.  Two  desires  or  im- 
pulses may  be  equally  efficient  for  getting  immediate 
and  enthusiastic  response  in  children,  but  may  be 
very  different  in  their  reaction  on  the  inner  springs  of 
character.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  we  must  have 
intelligent  and  sympathetic  and  scientific  study  of 
these  vital  motives,  rather  than  trust  to  the  mere 
external  and  apparent  results. 

7.  An  enumeration  of  some  of  the  principal  impulses, 
instincts  and  desires  that  furnish  motives  in  life. 

Many  efforts  have  been  made  by  educators  to 
classify  these  tendencies  in  our  natures,  but  none  of 
them  is  entirely  satisfactory.  We  shall  not  undertake 
to  do  anything  more  than  to  make  a  rough  grouping 
of  some  of  those  which  are  most  to  be  used  by  us  in 
our  efforts  to  educate  in  accordance  with  the  threefold 
division  of  personality  we  have  been  using.  Instincts 
may  relate  primarily  (1)  to  the  receiving  side,  or  to  the 
income  of  the  individual;  or  (2)  to  the  states  within  the 
individual;  or  (3)  to  the  activities  or  expressions  of  the 
individual.  The  first  have  to  do  with  receiving  stimuli, 
the  second  with  the  internal  states  of  mind  whereby 
we  interpret  and  estimate  values  and  influence  choices, 


64  Use  of  Motives 

and  the  third  with  the  response  to  the  stimuli  of  the 
environment.  In  strict  truth  most  instincts  tend  to 
contribute  to  all  three  of  these  aspects  of  the  indi- 
vidual, and  all  involve  action  as  their  normal  outcome. 

(1)  The  natural,  instinctive  qualities  that  make  for 
the  reception  and  income.  These  are  desires,  not  nec- 
essarily for  action,  but  also  for  stimulus  and  reception. 
In  this  group  we  would  class  (a)  curiosity  or  the 
desire  for  knowledge  which  is  the  foundation  of  the 
getting  of  all  knowledge,  (6)  the  desire  for  possessions 
or  the  instinct  of  ownership  (close  to  this  is  the 
instinct  to  make  collections  of  various  things);  (c) 
the  desire  for  approbation;  and  (d)  the  desire  to  he  en- 
tertained;  and  many  others  of  even  more  primitive  sort. 

(2)  The  instincts  and  impulses  or  tendencies  that 
look  chiefly  to  the  internal  personal  states  and  atti- 
tudes. Among  these  we  may  mention  (a)  fear,  which 
grows  partly  out  of  inexperience  and  uncertainty  and 
is  related  to  distrust,  aversion  and  hatred;  (6)  confi- 
dence and  trustfulness,  leading  under  proper  exercise 
to  sympathy,  love,  and  kindred  attitudes;  (c)  spirit 
of  obedience  or  acceptance  of  authority;  {d)  the 
opposite  impulse  of  contrariness  or  self -assertion;  (e) 
imagination,  which  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  and 
pleasant  capabilities  of  childhood;  (/)  anger;  (g) 
feeling  of  rivalry;  (h)  the  sense  of  comfort  or  dis- 
comfort, satisfaction  or  dissatisfaction.  They  modify 
action  rather  than  induce  it  directly. 

(3)  The  impulses  that  lead  directly  toward  expres- 
sion.   In  one  way  or  another  all  the  instincts  men- 


The  Principle  of  Motivation  05 

tioned  in  (1)  and  (2)  may  lead  toward  action,  though 
not  necessarily  so.  While  curiosity  may  produce 
action  on  our  part,  the  action  is  only  a  means  to  an 
end.  The  real  desire  is  for  income,  not  for  action. 
This  is  the  goal  of  most  impulses,  —  either  to  produce 
action  or  to  prevent  it.  There  are,  however,  numerous 
instincts  and  tendencies  that  are  peculiarly  inspiring 
to  responses.  Some  of  these  are:  (a)  a  native  restless- 
nesSy  which  is  fundamentally  physiological  and  is 
seen  in  most  children.  It  leads  to  nervous  and  muscu- 
lar activity  just  as  curiosity  looks  toward  information; 
(6)  the  instinct  of  repetition,  which  is  quite  universal 
and  shows  itself  in  the  desire  to  hear  again  or  to  do 
again  the  things  that  have  given  satisfaction;  (c) 
the  play  instinct,  which  is  very  powerful  in  children 
and  is  being  used  more  and  more  skilfully  by  teachers; 
(d)  the  impulse  to  talk,  by  the  exercise  of  which  the 
child  makes  great  intellectual  progress  in  the  first 
few  years  of  his  life;  (e)  the  passion  to  he  doing  things, 
either  destructive  or  constructive,  growing  in  part  out 
of  restlessness  and  curiosity;  (/)  the  closely  related 
combative  or  fighting  impulse ;  (g)  the  instinct  of  leader- 
ship and  of  mastery,  expressed  in  the  child's  program 
in  the  desire  to  "be  it,"  and  to  overcome  obstacles; 
(h)  the  impulse  to  share  with  others  what  one  enjoys; 
(i)  the  "  gang  "  or  gregarious  instinct  which  drives 
children  to  seek  companions;  {j)  the  impulse  to 
"  show  off,''  which  is  related  to  the  desire  for  appro- 
bation; {k)  the  sex  impulses. 
These  are  by  no  means  all  the  natural  instincts  and 


66  Use  of  Motives 

desires  which  the  child  gets  by  inheritance  and  which 
furnish  unreasoned  motives  for  its  early  life;  but  they 
are  enough  to  enable  us  as  teachers  to  see  something 
of  the  range  of  qualities  to  which  we  may  appeal  as 
we  try  to  build  up  character.  These  are  found  in 
some  degree  in  all  children,  but  not  in  the  same 
degree  in  all.  They  are  not  of  the  same  relative 
strength  at  different  stages  in  one  child.  They  are 
not  character;  but  they  are  the  inherited  raw  ma- 
terials out  of  which  character  is  built.  They  are  the 
chief  incentives  of  childhood;  indeed  they  furnish 
the  leading  motives  for  all  human  life  and  activity. 

8.  Application  of  motivation  in  general  education. 

In  the  public  schools  we  are  now  seeing  a  very 
intelligent  effort  to  use  these  primitive  impulses  of 
the  child  to  assist  in  securing  the  right  attitude  of  the 
young  toward  the  work  of  the  school,  in  order  that 
they  may  receive,  think,  and  respond  rightly.  In  very 
early  life  we  motivate  much  of  the  necessary  work  by 
giving  it  the  form  of  a  game  and  thus  appealing  to 
the  play  instinct.  Instead  of  memorizing  meaningless 
names  and  positions  in  geography,  the  work  is  given 
meaning  and  just  as  much  and  as  good  information 
about  the  places  is  gained,  through  the  device  of 
travel  stories.  Instead  of  attacking  history  as  an 
organized  body  of  knowledge,  with  no  consideration 
for  the  states  of  mind  of  the  child,  the  start  is  made 
with  problems  that  the  child  himself  may  wish  to 
know,  and  thus  his  curiosity  leads  the  way.  The 
logical  order  is  made  to  give  way  to  the  psychological. 


The  Principle  of  Motivation  67 

It  may  be  necessary  again  to  reassure  the  reader 
who  fears  that  we  are  merely  trying  to  discover  or 
make  the  oft-despaired-of  royal  road  to  learning  and 
to  life.  There  is  no  such  intention.  The  contention 
merely  is  this:  the  road  is  quite  difficult  enough 
at  best  without  making  or  keeping  it  unnecessarily 
so;  a  great  deal  of  hard  work  is  necessary  to  every 
traveler  who  gets  on  and  such  hard  work  has  much 
value;  but  we  have  those  impulses  within  us  which 
will  give  zest  to  the  journey  and  to  all  the  work  of  it, 
if  they  can  only  be  aroused;  that  the  difficult  road 
can  be  more  satisfactorily  traveled  and  the  wayfarer 
may  go  further  on  it  and  most  of  all  may  get  more 
pleasure  and  profit  out  of  it,  if  he  can  have  brought 
to  his  attention  first  these  things  that  most  appeal  to 
him  and  thus  arouse  his  interest  in  the  things  that 
originally  seemed  to  have  no  appeal.  It  further  is 
to  be  understood  that  the  motivation  which  might 
seem  most  alluring  to  the  mature  mind  is  not  that 
which  serves  a  life  purpose  to  the  child  mind.  The 
doctrine  of  motivation  insures  that  the  road  shall  be 
considered  as  a  pleasant  and  profitable  highway  for 
the  child  to  get  its  development,  and  is  not  traveled 
either  for  the  sake  of  the  road  or  for  the  pleasure  of 
those  who  have  already  traveled  the  road. 

Topics  for  Further  Study  and  Discussion 

1.  The  age  at  which  some  of  the  important  instincts 
appear. 


68  Use  of  Motives 

2.  Other  ways  of  classifying  the  instincts:  e.g., 
Environmental,  Individualistic,  Social,  Sexual  and 
Parental,  Adaptive. 

3.  Strong  and  weak  points  of  the  "  Doctrine  of 
Interest."    Point  of  contact  in  teaching. 

4.  How  does  motivation  add  to  these  ideas? 

5.  Devices  which  school  teachers  have  used  suc- 
cessfully to  motivate  English,  History,  Arithmetic, 
etc. 

6.  Relation  of  motives  to  morals. 

Suggestive  Questions 

Why  is  it  short-sighted  and  wrong  to  assume  that 
the  natural  impulses  are  evil?  Is  it  sound  on  the 
other  hand  to  hold  that  we  should  follow  them 
blindly?  What  then  is  the  pedagogical  attitude? 
Are  you  really  ready  to  practise  your  own  answer  in 
your  work?  Mention  some  instincts  that  should  pass 
away  with  infancy.  Mention  some  that  should  more 
gradually  wane.  Mention  some  that  should  grow 
stronger  throughout  life.  How  is  the  attitude  and 
practise  of  the  teacher  modified  by  his  view  of  the 
nature  of  the  instincts?  Why  is  it  difficult  to  classify 
the  instincts  satisfactorily?  Is  there  a  single  one  of 
these  inner  impulses  that  does  not  have  something 
to  do  with  our  choices  and  morals?  What  is  sug- 
gested by  the  fact  that  such  a  large  proportion  of  our 
instincts  look  toward  activity? 


The  Principle  of  Motivation  69 

Some  Practical  Problems 

1.  The  kind  of  man  one  becomes  at  maturity  de- 
pends very  largely  upon  the  native  instinctive  im- 
pulses that  have  been  selected,  emphasized,  and 
developed  by  his  parents,  his  teachers,  and  himself. 
Suppose  two  children  have  the  same  impulses  to 
start  with.  One  from  the  beginning  is  encouraged  to 
indulge  every  physical  appetite,  to  use  no  restraint 
over  temper,  and  cultivates  greed,  jealousy,  rivalry, 
and  hate.  The  other  from  the  beginning  has  the 
emotions  of  sympathy  and  confidence  encouraged,  is 
allowed  to  share  in  the  pleasures  of  unselfishness  and 
service,  is  induced  for  the  sake  of  the  approval  of 
those  he  loves  to  forego  self-indulgence  and  find 
pleasure  in  self-mastery.  What  will  be  the  differences 
in  the  mature  character  of  the  men? 

2.  We  can  so  motivate  conduct  as  to  emphasize 
and  strengthen  any  of  the  instincts  and  attitudes  that 
we  really  desire  our  children  to  have.  How  can  this 
be  done  in  such  a  way  as  to  develop  obedience?  The 
desire  to  serve?  The  impulse  to  share?  Sympathy 
for  the  less  fortunate?    Extend  the  list. 

3.  The  coupling  of  impulses.  What  practical 
value  is  there  in  coupling  the  weaker,  desirable  im- 
pulses with  stronger  ones?  For  example,  could  you 
devise  ways  to  strengthen  the  weaker  impulse  of 
obedience  by  coupling  it  with  curiosity  or  desire  for 
approval,  or  the  instinct  of  leadership?  What  motives 
could  you  appeal  to  in  order  to  increase  the  satis- 


70  Use  of  Motives 

faction  of  sharing  or  controlling  anger,  or  being  fair 
and  honest  in  play? 

4.  The  gradual  lessening  of  the  power  of  certain 
instincts.  Suggest  practical  devices  to  decrease  the 
impulses  of  fear,  rivalry,  anger,  fighting,  greed,  and 
the  Hke. 

References 

Athearn:  The  Church  School.  The  Pilgrim  Press, 
Boston.     $1.00 

DeGarmo:  Interest  and  Education.  The  Macmillan 
Co.,  N.  Y.     $1.00 

DuBois:  The  Point  of  Contact  in  Teaching.  Dodd, 
Mead  &  Co.,  N.  Y.     .75 

Galloway:  The  Appeal  to  Motives  in  Religious  Educa- 
tion in  Encyclopedia  of  Sunday  Schools  and  Relig- 
ious Education.     Thomas  Nelson  &  Sons,  N.  Y. 

Meyer:  The  Graded  Sunday  School  in  Principle  and 
Practise.    Methodist  Book  Concern,  N.  Y.     .75 


CHAPTER  V 

MOTIVATION  IN  SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

TEACHING 

1.  0/  what  importance  to  the  Sunday  schools  is  this 
search  for  motives? 

We  have  seen  that  the  general  educator  is  coming 
to  appreciate  that  any  subject  contributes  to  the 
development  of  the  child  just  in  proportion  to  the  in- 
tensity of  the  internal  motives  with  which  the  child 
comes  to  be  drawn  to  the  subject.  The  exercises,  in 
which  children  are  so  interested  that  they  put  their 
whole  natures,  educate  them  more  rapidly  and  pro- 
foundly than  those  in  which  they  take  no  conscious 
satisfaction.  This  means  that  the  first  task  in  good 
teaching  is  to  secure  this  attitude  of  complete  en- 
thusiasm for  the  needful  tasks.  To  do  this  we  must 
go  to  work  by  way  of  the  child^s  natural  instincts, 
impulses,  desires,  and  satisfactions.  These  are 
natural,  God-given,  and  for  a  constructive  purpose. 
There  is  no  separating  of  these  into  animal  and  hu- 
man; physical  and  spiritual;  good  and  bad.  No 
one  of  them  can  be  properly  used  and  developed  with- 
out ministering  to  the  whole  of  life.  No  one  of  them 
can  be  misused  without  making  more  dijKcult  that 
balanced  hold  on  all  of  life  which  is  the  real  meaning 
of  religion. 

71 


72  Use  of  Motives 

Because  of  these  things  it  is  clear  that  we  Sunday- 
school  teachers  will  find  here  as  much  to  help  in  our 
work  as  have  the  teachers  of  EngHsh  or  geography  or 
history  or  science.  Indeed  there  are  certain  reasons 
why  it  is  more  important  for  us  to  get  an  ally  in  the 
impulses  and  instincts  of  the  child  than  it  is  for  the 
ordinary  teachers.  If  the  public-school  teachers,  who 
can  control  the  time  and  movements  of  the  pupils 
for  such  a  large  part  of  their  waking  hours,  feel  the 
need  of  enlisting  the  aid  of  these  natural  motives  to 
secure  the  results  they  seek,  how  much  more  do  the 
Sunday  schools  need  to  secure  this  internal  ally  in 
the  personality  of  the  pupil  in  order  to  overcome 
the  handicaps  under  which  we  work. 

2.  The  impulses  and  religious  education. 

If  it  is  true,  as  is  contended  in  this  book,  that  the 
prime  purpose  of  moral  and  religious  education  is 
so  to  equip  the  individual  that  he  shall  have  the 
power  and  the  disposition  to  make  and  execute  right 
choices,  it  will  be  seen  at  once  that  these  instincts, 
impulses,  tendencies,  desires  and  appetites,  —  in  a 
word,  the  emotional  sides  of  life  —  are  tremendously 
important  in  religious  development.  The  desires 
have  a  most  profound  influence  on  choice;  much  more 
than  mere  learning  has.  Unless  these  desires  are 
right,  the  individual  is  under  the  necessity  of  going 
into  every  choice  with  a  powerful  internal  enemy 
making  right  choice  difficult.  Knowledge  and  experi- 
ence alone,  unless  they  find  an  ally  in  some  powerful 
desires  and  instincts,  will  not  serve  to  insure  right 


Motivation  in  Sunday-School  Teaching         73 

purpose  and  choice  and  behavior.  More  than  any- 
other  realm  of  personaHty,  the  rehgious  nature  is 
powerfully  supported  or  thwarted  by  the  desires  and 
impulses. 

3.  The  applicability  of  motivation  to  moral  and 
religious  education. 

It  follows  from  what  has  just  been  said  that  one 
of  our  most  important  tasks  in  religious  education  is 
to  enlist  the  cooperation  of  just  the  right  internal 
instincts  and  desires  on  the  side  of  the  right  choices. 
The  genius  of  religious  instruction  is  not  to  make 
right  choices  distasteful  and  hard,  but  to  secure  the 
help  of  these  internal  impulses  so  that  even  the 
choices  that  would  be  difficult  will  yield  more  satis- 
faction than  would  result  from  following  the  easier 
way.  Its  aim  is  to  develop  desires  of  the  higher  order: 
"  My  son,  give  me  thy  heart."  This  is  necessarily 
the  course  which  religion  must  take  in  order  to  be 
secure  and  genuine.  We  must  not  trust  to  a  combat 
between  enlightened  intelligence  and  unsound  desires. 
If  we  can  get  intelligence  and  desires  leading  in  the 
same  direction,  we  insure  the  single  right  choices  and 
thus  the  habit  of  right  choosing. 

Desires  and  impulses  which  furnish  motives  to  life 
are  educated,  enlarged,  and  refined  by  use;  are  dis- 
placed by  others  that  give  or  promise  better  and  fuller 
satisfactions;  or  may  be  lost  wholly  by  disuse. 

The  teacher  who  believes  that  these  are  at  the 
bottom  of  moral  and  religious  education  does  not 
regard  any  of  these  impulses  as  intrinsically  bad  or 


74  Use  of  Motives 

sinful.  They  are  bad  only  when  they  outlive  their 
usefulness,  or  are  overdeveloped  and  appHed  in  the 
wrong  way  so  that  they  interfere  with  the  maturing 
of  the  higher  impulses  in  their  turn.  Curiosity,  play- 
fulness, the  desire  to  possess,  the  instinct  of  self- 
protection,  self-assertion,  the  sex  impulses  and  the 
like,  are  not  bad.  They  lead  to  valuable  results; 
they  introduce  fine  elements  in  character;  but  there 
is  no  one  of  them  which  may  not  become  wrong 
through  over-use  or  misapplication.  These  lowly 
instincts  are  the  raw  materials  of  our  moral  and 
religious  education.  In  such  education  it  is  our  task 
to  use  the  lower,  simpler  instincts  and  thus  allow 
them  to  make  their  proper  contribution,  and  gradually 
encourage  the  higher  but  equally  natural  impulses 
to  take  their  place.  Everything  that  is  worth  doing, 
—  from  service  to  self  up  to  self-sacrifice  for  others 
and  for  God,  —  has  within  us  natural  impulses  that 
make  the  thing  appealing  and  give  satisfaction  in  the 
doing.  Religious  motivation  is  the  finding  of  the 
suitable  internal  impulses  and  using  them  to  the  full. 
It  is  the  natural  thing  for  the  more  selfish  and  self- 
assertive  instincts  to  come  to  the  center  of  the  stage 
first;  but  these  should  gradually  give  way  before  the 
more  unselfish  and  social  instincts.  The  satisfaction 
of  sacrifice  is  no  less  real  or  less  natural  than  the 
satisfaction  of  self-assertion;  but  it  is  not  so  early 
a  motive  in  life. 

It  is  because  of  these  fundamental  principles  of 
human  structure  that  we  believe  that  a  sound  study 


Motivation  in  Sunday-School  Teaching  75 

of  motivation  gives  even  more  promise  of  regenerating 
moral  and  religious  education  than  it  has  accom- 
plished in  general  education. 

4.  Some  practical  reasons  why  an  appeal  to  the 
natural  motives  of  the  child  is  necessary  in  Sunday 
schools. 

There  are  several  classes  of  reasons  why  the  Sun- 
day-school teachers  need  to  give  special  attention  to 
the  task  of  arousing  the  best  impulses  and  motives 
for  the  doing  of  the  work  asked  for:  partly  because 
the  use  of  motives  is  basal  to  all  sound  education; 
partly  because  moral  and  religious  education  is  most 
important  of  all  and  is  beset  with  special  difficulties; 
partly  because  of  the  handicaps  which  lie  in  the 
looseness  of  the  organization  of  the  Sunday  school; 
and  partly  in  the  mature  and  remote  form  in  which 
most  of  our  religious  ideas  are  couched.  Some  of 
these  we  shall  consider  in  detail. 

5.  The  use  of  motives  is  especially  necessary  because 
of  the  limited  opportunity  of  the  Sunday-school  teacher. 

As  suggested  above,  the  Sunday  school  is  poorly 
organized  as  a  school.  It  is  confined  to  a  mere  scrap 
of  time;  it  cannot  presuppose  any  extended  home 
preparation  of  lessons;  it  cannot  command  the  pupil's 
time  and  attendance  for  even  the  half  hour,  except 
through  the  interest  of  the  pupil.  It  is  not  remarkable 
under  the  circumstances  that  the  Sunday  school  is  not 
so  efficient  as  we  might  wish.  It  is  rather  a  tribute  to 
the  eternal  worth  and  appeal  of  the  thing  we  are  doing 
that  it  is  as  efiicient  as  it  is. 


76  Use  of  Motives 

In  spite  of  these  handicaps  we  expect  the  Sunday 
school  to  secure  the  most  fundamental  educational 
results  demanded  in  any  part  of  our  whole  system  of 
schools.  Ordinarily  in  our  schools  we  are  satisfied 
if  we  can  secure  efficient  knowledge  of  English  or 
mathematics  or  manual  training,  and  the  like.  Here, 
in  the  Sunday  school,  we  are  after  efficiency  in  making 
righteous  choices,  the  most  difficult  thing  in  life,  very 
much  more  difficult  than  imparting  knowledge.  It 
is  only  the  part  of  wisdom  therefore  to  get  every  aid 
that  modern  pedagogy  can  bring. 

The  plan  of  intensifying,  and  making  internal  and 
natural,  the  motives  for  doing  the  work  has  revolu- 
tionized many  a  class  in  English,  history  or  geography; 
why  may  not  similar  wise  use  of  the  normal  desires 
and  motives  of  the  child  aid  equally  in  this  bigger 
task  of  developing  Christlike  character? 

6.  The  use  of  motives  is  peculiarly  necessary  in 
Sunday  school  because  of  the  artificiality  of  much  of 
our  moral  and  religious  teaching. 

As  adults  we  have  done  very  much  the  same  thing 
in  the  planning  of  religious  education  that  we  have 
been  doing  in  mathematics  and  grammar.  We  have 
organized  the  subject  matter  of  all  these  topics  in  a 
way  that  seemed  logical  and  suited  to  make  a  system 
comprehensible  and  satisfying  to  the  adult  mind.  For 
many  years  in  general  education  we  have  sacrificed 
our  children  to  these  logical  and  scientific  systems  of 
grammar  and  mathematics.  Recently,  however,  we 
are  coming  to  realize  that  the  child  mind  does  not 


Motivation  in  Sunday-School  Teaching  77 

need  a  systematic  treatise  on  language  or  numbers. 
The  race  didn't  have  anything  of  the  sort  to  start 
with.  They  merely  worked  at  numbers  and  language 
in  a  very  simple,  concrete  way  as  they  needed  them 
incidentally  in  relation  to  whatever  interested  them 
in  life.  We  now  understand  that  this  is  the  natural 
way,  and  we  associate  the  child's  numbers  and 
language  with  things  in  which  he  is  specifically  inter- 
ested. 

Now  in  respect  to  morals  and  religion,  the  tendency 
to  reduce  matters  to  a  system  is  even  more  strong 
and  intolerant  than  in  mathematics  or  science.  The 
religious  systems  and  statements  are  usually  formu- 
lated from  the  adult  point  of  view,  and  hence  need 
much  adjustment  to  youthful  interest.  Most  of  the 
religious  teaching  and  incentives  of  the  past  have 
related  to  the  future  life.  In  the  very  nature  of  things 
this  is  not  an  incentive  that  bulks  large  in  childhood, 
—  and  it  should  not.  Finally  much  of  religious  think- 
ing has  been  couched  in  philosophical  form,  and 
naturally  there  has  been  little  in  it  on  which  to  base 
enthusiasm  in  the  life  of  the  immature. 

These  and  other  things  have  made  the  development 
of  a  reasonable  and  common-sense  pedagogy  of  religion 
almost  impossible.  There  has  apparently  been 
something  of  the  thought  that  the  pious  attempt  to 
impart  to  children  these  adult  philosophical  con- 
ceptions would  be  supplemented  by  some  supernatural 
overcoming  of  the  bad  pedagogy.  Such  teachers 
should  recall  the  fact  that  Jesus  did  not  undertake  to 


78  Use  of  Motives 

teach  religion  to  his  childlike  disciples  in  this  system- 
atic way. 

Topics  for  Further  Study  and  Discussion 

1.  The  use  of  natural  motives  like  curiosity, 
restlessness,  the  gang  spirit,  and  the  sex  impulses,  for 
religious  ends.    Is  it  possible?    Is  it  right?    Why? 

2.  The  seeming  handicaps  under  which  we,  as 
Sunday-school  teachers,  work.  Examine  whether 
they  are  solely  and  really  handicaps.  For  example, 
is  self-activity  encouraged? 

3.  The  necessity  of  both  emotions  and  knowledge 
in  religious  choices.    The  function  of  each. 

4.  Education  of  emotions.  Necessity  of.  Methods 
of. 

5.  There  can  be  no  external  temptation  except  for 
some  internal  impulse  which  makes  it  appealing. 
This  is  equally  true  of  our  upward  aspirations,  as 
well.  No  inspiration  without  appreciation.  Can  you 
illustrate? 

Suggestive  Questions 

Why  is  it  dangerous  to  try  to  separate  our  religious 
life  from  the  normal  interests  and  desires?  Give 
instances  in  which  you  are  aware  of  conflict  between 
desires  and  judgment.  Between  desires.  What  is 
the  function  of  a  teacher  or  parent  at  such  a  time? 
What  of  psychology  is  suggested  by  "  My  son,  give 
me  thine  heart  "?  How  are  we  to  get  an  alliance 
between  desires  and  judgment?  What  of  our  impulses 
and  instincts  are  most  liable  to  be  over-developed? 


Motivation  in  Sunday-School  Teaching  79 

Illustrate  effects  of  over-development  by  concrete 
cases.  What  is  the  only  way  in  which  habits  of  right 
choice  can  be  developed?  Why  are  light  and  music 
and  companionship  encouraged  in  saloons?  What  are 
the  satisfactions  of  sacrifice?  How  then  can  we 
encourage  sacrifice  in  proper  degree? 

Some  Practical  Problems 

1.  If  you  were  seeking  to  get  and  maintain  the 
enthusiastic  interest  and  curiosity  of  a  child  for 
nature  and  the  study  of  nature,  how  would  you  pro- 
ceed? Would  you  use  your  power  to  force  it  from  the 
outside  to  work  at  difficult  and  uninteresting  aspects 
of  the  subject,  where  maximum  effort  was  necessary 
for  the  child?  Or  would  you  follow  its  present  trivial, 
and  even  fickle,  interests,  where  least  effort  was  de- 
manded, and  thus  gradually  lead  the  child  to  become 
so  interested  in  what  was  formerly  uninteresting  and 
difficult  that  no  conscious  effort  will  be  demanded? 

2.  If  you  sought  to  develop  the  power  and  attitude 
of  attention  in  a  child,  would  you  insist  that  it  force 
its  attention  consciously,  whether  interested  or  not, 
in  order  to  get  mastery  over  the  power  of  attending? 
Or  would  you  begin  with  things  in  which  it  is  already 
interested  and  thus  enable  it  to  acquire  the  habit 
and  attitude  of  attention  to  interesting  things;  and 
develop  its  interest  to  take  in  things  more  and  more 
difficult?    Reasons  for  your  answer. 

3.  Apply  your  conclusions  to  the  problem  of  edu- 
cating tastes,  desires,  likes,  and  dislikes. 


80  Use  of  Motives 

References 

Galloway:  Prizes,  in  Encyclopedia  of  Sunday 
Schools  and  Religious  Education.  Thomas  Nelson 
&  Sons,  N.  Y. 

Weigle:  The  Pupil  and  the  Teacher;  Ch.  VIII, 
Instinct.    Hodder  and  Stoughton,  N.  Y.  .50 


CHAPTER  VI 
A  STUDY  OF  THE  NATURAL  MOTIVES 

1.  Introduction:  shortcomings  of  our  present  in- 
ducements. 

If  it  is  true,  as  many  educators  feel,  that  the  Sunday- 
schools  get  less  complete  results  than  they  should  get 
partly  because  proper  efforts  are  not  made  to  take 
advantage  of  the  natural  desires  and  interests  and 
motives  of  young  people,  then  it  at  once  becomes  the 
duty  of  the  students  of  Sunday-school  problems  to 
make  some  study  of  this  matter  of  motives.  It  is  the 
feeling  of  many  that  the  inducements  offered  in  the 
average  Sunday  school  are  either  (1)  too  vague  and 
broad,  or  (2)  too  low  and  trivial,  to  be  of  permanent 
value,  or  (3)  too  high  and  remote  from  the  conscious 
longing  of  the  child  to  allow  him  to  find  in  them  strong 
incentives  to  action. 

2.  Vague  motives;  their  weakness. 

As  illustration  of  the  vague  efforts  to  motivate 
Sunday-school  work  we  might  cite  the  general  idea 
that  the  boys  and  girls  who  go  to  Sunday  school  are 
in  some  way  *'  better  "  than  those  who  do  not,  coupled 
with  the  general  exhortation  to  ''be  good."  Such 
general  points  of  view  have  their  value,  as  a  kind  of 
background,  if  they  are  not  made  too  emphatic;  and 
they  are  not  to  be  eliminated  from  use.    They  must 

81 


82  Use  of  Motives 

be  reinforced,  however,  by  appeals  much  more  definite 
and  concrete.  Furthermore  it  must  become  true  that 
they  are  actually  "  better  "  in  practical  life. 

Somewhat  more  definite,  but  much  too  broad  and 
vague  for  the  use  of  young  children,  is  the  exhortation 
to  be  like  Christ  or  to  guide  their  lives  by  his  example. 
If  the  child  could  do  this  he  wouldn't  need  our  teach- 
ing. We  must  rather,  after  the  first  attractive, 
inspiring,  revealing  of  the  Master,  give  the  pupil 
motives  to  do  particular  tasks  that  are  Christlike,  and 
suited  to  his  emotional  and  intellectual  stage,  even  if 
we  have  to  appeal  to  impulses  nearer  home.  The 
distant  objective  is  good  for  guidance,  but  hardly  for 
motivation. 

3.  Low  motives;  their  weakness. 

Among  those  devices  which  are  frequently  employed 
and  are  to  be  looked  upon  as  pedagogically  poor,  to 
be  used  only  in  emergencies,  if  at  all  —  are  such  arti- 
ficial stimulants  as  material  prizes,  forced  and  ex- 
aggerated competitions,  progressive  medals,  and  other 
similar  recognitions.  Fear,  whether  of  parental  or 
future  punishment,  falls  in  the  same  category.  These 
stimuli  all  produce  intensive  motives  and  actions; 
but  usually  they  are  so  far  removed  in  reality  from  the 
moral  and  spiritual  results  we  are  after,  and  their  use 
is  so  generally  followed  by  unwholesome  reactions, 
that  they  do  not  minister  to  the  sustained  growth  we 
want  to  get. 

4.  Appeals  too  lofty  or  too  remote. 

In  the  third  class  of  appeals,  which  cannot  take 


A  Study  of  the  Natural  Motives  83 

deep  effect  because  of  the  immaturity  of  children, 
we  must  include  the  high  spiritual  states  and  expecta- 
tions, both  in  respect  to  this  life  and  the  life  to  come, 
which  may  be  regarded  as  normal  to  the  aged  or 
mature  Christian  of  the  meditative  type.  The  ideas 
thus  associated  with  rest,  peace,  and  heaven  do  not, 
and  ought  not  to,  have  a  very  large  place  with  the 
child.  To  insist  on  them  in  early  Hfe  is  sure  to  breed 
hypocrisy  or  revolt  in  normal  children. 

5.  Summary  of  the  instinctive  elements  to  which  we 
may  appeal: 

It  will  help  our  study  of  motivation  to  make  some 
display  of  the  qualities  of  personality  in  children  to 
which  appeal  can  be  made;  and  of  the  general  results 
of  such  appeals  upon  the  states  of  mind  and  the  atti- 
tude of  life  that  go  to  make  up  character.  It  is  no 
part  of  the  thought  of  the  present  writer  that  this 
outline  of  the  personal  qualities  back  of  the  motives 
which  may  be  reached  in  our  effort  to  influence  life, 
is  complete  or  final.  The  only  contention  is  that  all 
the  results  of  modern  pedagogy  show  that  it  is  suicidal 
not  to  reinforce  teaching  by  every  proper  appeal  to 
the  strong,  native,  effective  motives;  and  that  it  is 
not  good  education  nor  good  religion  to  use  inferior 
or  ill-adapted  motives  when  it  is  possible  to  invoke 
better. 

We  may  remark  again  that  all  motives  get  their 
strength  from  the  fact  that  it  brings  satisfaction  to  us 
to  allow  them  to  express  themselves  in  their  normal 
way.    This  is  just  as  true  of  the  high  motives  as  of  the 


84  Use  of  Motives 

low.  It  is  the  actual  or  prospective  satisfaction  that 
gives  the  zest.  We  may  call  this  selfishness  if  we  wish; 
but  it  is  not  wise,  in  our  efforts  to  improve  children 
and  adults,  including  ourselves,  to  forget  that  our 
progress  consists  largely  in  sacrificing  lower  satis- 
factions to  higher,  more  refined  ones. 

It  is  said  of  Jesus  himself  that  he  "  endured  the 
cross  for  the  jo^/  that  was  set  before  him."  The  highest 
point  we  ever  reach  is  to  get  pleasure  out  of  self- 
sacrifice.  It  is  to  the  credit  of  our  natures  that  we 
may  pass  from  satisfaction  of  self-indulgence  to  find 
satisfaction  in  self-sacrifice. 

In  the  following  table  an  effort  has  been  made  to 
display  some  of  these  native  impulses,  to  show  in  a 
concrete  way  how  parents  and  teachers  may  appeal 
to  them  in  securing  internal  motives  for  conduct,  and 
to  indicate  some  of  the  results  in  personality  which 
may  come  from  the  use  and  development  of  them. 
The  teacher  will  be  able  to  extend  the  list  of  these 
qualities  and  their  values.  They  are  merely  the  raw 
material,  very  differently  mixed  in  different  children, 
on  which  and  by  means  of  which  we  must  work  in  our 
efforts  to  equip  the  children  in  our  Sunday  schools 
with  the  disposition,  the  power,  and  the  habit  of 
making  right  choices. 


A  Study  of  the  Natural  Motives 


85 


A.  Native  Quali- 
ties and  Instincts  to 
which  appeal  may  be 
made. 


B.  Method  of  Ap- 
peal to  these  Motives 
in  order  to  get  sound 
Results. 


C.  Results  in  Per- 
sonality which  may 
come  from  their  Use, 
—  both  good  and 
bad.  (Dangers  from 
wrong  or  over-em- 
phasis.) 


1.  Curiosity. 


2.  Desire 

Ownership. 


for 


Start  with  the 
Child's  desire  t  o 
know,  satisfy  it  with 
real  knowledge,  con- 
nect this  with  what 
needs  to  be  imparted 
in  such  a  way  as  to 
get  "  contact  "  and 
enlarged  curiosity. 

Usually  needs  to  be 
checked  and  guided 
rather  than  urged. 

To  be  coupled  with 
next. 


3.  Desire  to  Share. 


Make  clear  to  child 
cases  of  need;  induce 
him  to  share  with 
those  he  is  most  fond 
of,  gradually  extend 
the  field;  be  sure 
the  child  sees  the 
happiness  it  has  pro- 
duced. 


Knowledge. 

Thirst  for  higher 
kinds  of  knowledge. 

(May  become  low 
and  morbid,  if  al- 
lowed to  dwell  on 
little  things  exclu- 
sively.) 


Material  posses- 
sions. Ought  to  di- 
minish with  higher 
development.  (May 
degenerate  into  ava- 
rice, theft,  dis- 
honesty.) 

Liberahty,  benev- 
olence, generosity. 
Habit  of  unselfish- 
ness. 

(Indiscriminate 
giving.) 


86 


Use  of  Motives 


4.  Imitation. 


8.  Contraxiness. 


6.  Emulation 
Rivalry. 


o  r 


7.  Restlessness. 


r  8.  F  a  i  t  h 

Trustfulness. 


a  n 


Give  proper  scope 
to  it,  by  furnishing 
suitable,  attractive 
examples  both  of  per- 
sonahties  and  of 
actions. 

Guided  and  won 
over  by  superior  rea- 
son and  patience, 
rather  than  by  su- 
perior force. 

Sparingly  used 
and  then  stripped 
as  nearly  as  possible 
of  the  "  personal  " 
feeling. 


Supply  varied, 
suitable,  wholesome, 
attractive  outlets. 


Constant  truth; 
fair  treatment.  Ap- 
peal in  such  a  way  as 
to  extend  it  from 
known  persons  into  a 
love  and  confidence 
in  Universe. 


Good  or  bad  ac- 
tions, customs, 
habits,  attitudes,  de- 
pending on  the  hero. 
(Lack  of  originality.) 

Originality; 
strength  of  purpose. 

(Disagreeable  ego- 
tism and  antago- 
nism.) 

Vigor  and  ef- 
ficiency. 

Intensification  of 
action. 

(Offensive  egotism 
and  envy  or  jeal- 
ousy.) 


Experimentation 
and  activity. 

Discovery  and  utili- 
zation of  expressive 
powers. 

(Nervousness  and 
ineffective   changes.) 

Constructive  e  n  - 
thusiasm.  C  o  n  - 

tinuity  of  purpose 
and  effort. 

Sympathy:  opti- 
mism. 

(Credulity;  open- 
ness to  imposition.) 


A  Study  of  the  Natural  Motives 


87 


9.  Obedience. 


10.  Fear. 


11.  Imagination. 


Based  originally  on 
the  inexperience  of 
the  child,  it  should  be 
appealed  to  wisely 
and  sanely;  should 
be  reinforced  by  ab- 
solute justice  and 
truth;  should  not  be 
overworked. 


Only  to  be  ap- 
pealed to  if  at  all,  in 
extreme  emergencies 
and  crises;  and  then 
by  perfectly  true, 
convincing,  unex- 
aggerated  statement 
of  danger. 

To  be  used  i  n  a 
broad,  n  o  n  -critical 
way,  relating  it  to 
higher  rather  than 
lower  tendencies  and 
possibiUties  o  f  t  h  e 
nature. 


Habits  and  atti- 
tudes of  obedience  to 
conventions  and 
laws. 

Harmonious  and 
cooperative  relations 
with  others. 

Assimilation  o  f 
what  the  race  has 
gained. 

(Lack  of  originality 
and  independence, 
and  of  personal 
growth  and  c  o  n  - 
victions.) 

Intensity  of  action 
(or  paralysis  of  ac- 
tion), but  usually 
through  n  e  g  a  t  ive 
motives,  —  (usually 
reacting  harmfully  on 
personality). 


Larger,  rounder 
views,  sympathies, 
and  insights  than 
mere  matter-of-fact 
statements  of  truths 
will  give  or  allow. 
(Unreality  and  lack 
of  harmony  with 
facts.) 


88 


Use  of  Motives 


12.  I  n  s  t  i  n  c  t  of 
Repetition. 


13.  Play  Instinct. 


14.  Talking 
stinct. 


In 


15.  Instinct     for 
"  Doing  Things." 


Furnish  o  p  p  o  r  - 
tunity  to  repeat  the 
good  attitudes, 
speeches,  acts,  deci- 
sions, etc.,rather  than 
the  bad. 

No  appeal  neces- 
sary. Guide  and 
make  serve  construc- 
tive ends.  Play  is  the 
moral  arena  and 
clinic  of  childhood 
Use  to  secure  moral 
habits. 


Cultivate  as  a 
means  of  exact  ex 
pression,  and  of  the 
development  and 
crystallization  of  in- 
ner ideals  and 
ideas.  Helps  reveal 
to  teachers  just 
where  pupil  is. 

Encourage;  guide, 
furnish  wholesome 
channels.  There  is 
no  way  of  eq^ual 
value  for  developing 
personality,  and  pre- 
venting demoraUza- 
tion,  at  critical  times. 


Facility  in  the 
thing  repeated;  skill, 
habits,  —  good  o  r 
bad. 

(Lack  of  origi- 
nality.) 

Enthusiastic  ac- 
tion; complete  en- 
gagement of  the 
whole  personality, 
and  the  habit  of  this; 
practise  in  control  of 
self.  (Lack  of  seri- 
ousness; desire  to  be 
amused.) 

Facility  of  self- 
expression. 

(Hypocrisyra 
means  of  covering 
real  thoughts.) 


Practise;  s  e  1  f  - 
discovery  and  self- 
control;  skill;  habits 
of  effective  industry. 

(Neglect  of  the 
ideal,  meditative  side 
of  life.) 


A  Study  of  the  Natural  Motives 


89 


16.  Instinct 
Leading. 


for 


Find  special  capa- 
bilities, and  offer  op- 
portunity to  exercise 
them  in  most  whole- 
some degree  and 
manner.  Power  i  n 
leadership  depends 
on  practise  in  lead- 
ing. 


Ability  to  lead; 
habits  of  leading. 

(Egoism;  rivalry. 
Unwillingness  to  fol- 
low.) 


Topics  for  Further  Study  and  Discussion 

1.  An  examination  of  the  state  of  your  own  Sunday 
school  to  determine  what  motives  are  actually  ap- 
pealed to  in  order : 

(1)  To  secure  attendance, 

(2)  To  secure  order, 

(3)  To  induce  worship  and  reverence, 

(4)  To  get  class  work  done. 

Estimate  at  what  points  improvement  could  be  made. 

2.  The  motivating  power  of  a  satisfaction  is  in 
proportion  to  its  nearness.    Corollaries  of  this. 

3.  The  possibility  of  an  upward  development  and 
refinement  of  satisfactions,  —  from  selfish  gratifica- 
tions to  sacrifice  for  others. 

4.  The  rewards  (satisfactions)  which  we  use  in 
motivating  pupils  should  be  just  as  natural  to  the 
total  situation  as  possible. 

Suggestive  Questions 

Is  a  child  better  off  at  Sunday  school  than  at  home? 
Examine  both  sides  of  the  question.     Suppose  the 


90  Use  of  Motives 

Sunday  school  is  not  orderly;  suppose  its  teaching  is 
superficial  and  unconvincing;  suppose  its  worship  is 
flippant  and  irreverent;  suppose  it  ignores  the  real 
present  capacities  of  the  child  emotionally,  intellec- 
tually, and  in  its  impulses  and  powers  of  expression? 
Did  you  ever  know  a  Sunday  school  in  which  some  of 
these  shortcomings  existed?  What  is  involved  in 
the  idea  of ''  appropriate  "  motives? 

Some  Practical  Problems 

1.  Some  motives  used  in  our  Sunday  schools: 

(1)  Fear,    cupidity,    rivalry:     too    low,    but 

strong. 

(2)  Heaven,  spiritual  life,  etc.:    fine,  but  too 

lofty  and  remote. 

What  is  there  between?  And  how  can  we  use  all 
of  these  things  in  order  to  get  the  best  results  in 
practise? 

2.  Make  a  table  continuing  the  one  of  section  5 
using  the  following  youthful  instincts  and  impulses: 
the  "  gang  "  instinct  with  its  appeal  to  loyalty;  the 
collecting  impulse;  the  destructive  tendencies; 
the  fighting  instinct;  the  sex  impulses. 

References 

Abbott:     Gentle  Measures  in  Management  and  Train- 
ing of  the  Young.     Harper  Bros.,  N.  Y.  $1.25 


A  Study  of  the  Natural  Motives  91 

Bagley:    Educative    Values.      The  Macmillan    Co., 

N.  Y.     $1.25 
Galloway:    Biology  of  Sex  for  Parents  and  Teachers. 

(Chapter  VII.)     D.  C.  Heath.    .75 
Weigle:    The    Pupil    and  the    Teacher.       Lutheran 

Publication  Society,  Philadelphia.      .50 


CHAPTER  VII 

MOTIVATION  IN  THE  INSTRUCTIONAL  SIDE 
OF  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  WORK 

1.  The  two  aspects  of  education:  instruction  and 
expression. 

In  earlier  chapters  it  has  been  suggested  that  there 
are  two  ways  by  which  we  may  influence  the  growth 
and  development  of  the  character  of  the  pupils.  In 
the  first  place  we  may  give  information  or  instruct, 
inspire,  impress  or  stimulate  the  individual.  This  is 
what  we  usually  mean  by  teaching.  This  is  the  im- 
pressive side  of  education.  It  is  the  method  whereby 
we  influence  the  individual  by  what  has  happened  in 
the  past.  We  are  stimulating  personality  from  the 
receiving  side.  This  is  very  important;  and  we  need 
to  learn  continually  how  to  do  this  better  and  better. 
This,  however,  is  not  all.  We  may,  in  the  second  place, 
educate  by  securing  or  allowing  activity  on  the  part 
of  the  pupil.  He  may  develop  character  by  doing 
things  and  by  taking  the  satisfaction  or  discomfort 
that  comes  from  the  doing.  This  is  learning  by 
expression.  There  are  many  who  insist  that  this  is 
the  best  possible  way  to  learn,  —  that  one  learns 
much  more  surely  by  practise  than  by  instruction. 

In   reality,    as   we   have   seen,    genuine   teaching 

93 


04  Use  of  Motives 

properly  includes  both.  The  best  results  come  from 
right  instruction,  given  in  the  most  appealing  possible 
way,  meeting  the  internal  needs  and  impulses  of  the 
pupil,  going  on  into  right  choices  and  action,  and 
followed  by  the  full  satisfaction  that  comes  from 
doing  the  right  thing.  This  is  a  complete  personal 
reaction, — ^the  most  educative  thing  in  the  world. 

An  illustration  from  the  early  life  of  the  child  may 
make  this  clearer.  In  learning  to  talk  the  child  hears 
words  of  others.  These  make  a  distinct  impression. 
The  sound  may  come  to  carry  definite  meaning  to 
the  child.  On  the  other  hand  the  child  has  the 
power  of  making  noises,  and  does  so.  Possibly  these 
may  have  some  meaning  to  the  child.  These  two 
things,  however,  do  not  constitute  talking;  they  must 
become  related  before  much  of  education  can  follow. 
In  really  learning  to  talk,  the  child  must  hear  and  be 
impressed  with  the  sounds,  and  must  then  imitate 
them  by  its  own  muscular  actions.  It  is  the  coupling 
up  of  expression  to  impression  that  proves  so  full  of 
educational  value. 

2.  The  pupiVs  part  in  impression :   attention. 

A  large  part  of  education  must  always  be  made 
up  of  instruction,  of  impression.  Life  is  too  short  for 
each  individual  to  be  taught  solely  by  his  own  actions 
and  experiences.  Indeed  education  as  a  human 
enterprise  consists  essentially  in  enabling  the  youth 
to  get  some  of  the  experience  of  the  race  without 
having  to  go  through  it  all  himself.  It  is  a  short  cut 
and,  while  it  saves  time,  it  has  the  shortcomings  that 


Motivation  in  Instruction  95 

belong  to  all  short  cuts.  It  is  never  quite  as  vital  as 
that  which  one  gets  by  practise. 

It  is  very  clear  that  openness  and  receptiveness  on 
the  part  of  the  pupil  is  a  most  important  quality  in 
determining  the  results  of  instruction.  His  attitude 
must  be  one  of  attention,  of  receptiveness,  of  apprecia- 
tion in  order  that  instruction  shall  really  reach  the 
springs  of  personality.  This  is  the  reason  that  edu- 
cators put  so  much  emphasis  on  attention.  The 
power  and  willingness  to  give  attention  is  not  only 
necessary  to  get  a  particular  piece  of  information; 
it  is  the  very  foundation  of  all  character.  Attention 
is  to  personality  what  cement  is  to  artificial  granite. 
Without  it  there  would  be  no  coherence  in  either  case. 
No  real  impression  can  be  made  on  pupils  without 
this  attitude  of  openness  or  attention. 

3.  Motivation  of  attention. 

Without  attention  and  openness  a  teacher  can  do 
nothing.  All  instruction  must  be  such,  and  of  such 
method,  as  first  of  all  to  win  the  attention  of  the  pupil. 
This  openness,  to  be  most  effective,  must  be  from 
within.  Openness  that  is  forced  from  without  is  not 
likely  to  have  any  permanence  or  much  usefulness. 
The  pupil  himself  then  must  have  internal  motives 
for  giving  attention,  —  for  opening  up.  If  he  has 
this,  the  attention  becomes  involuntary.  More 
results  can  be  had  when  attention  comes  thus  spon- 
taneously, and  the  energy  of  the  pupil  does  not  need 
to  be  given  to  the  mere  act  of  attending.  All  of  this 
means  that  what  we  teach  should  appeal  strongly  to 


96  Use  of  Motives 

some  of  the  interests  already  within  the  child.  We 
must  arouse  his  curiosity  and  desire  for  knowledge, 
or  connect  closely  what  we  are  presenting  with  some- 
thing that  he  already  knows  and  enjoys,  or  that 
appeals  strongly  to  his  imagination  or  tastes;  or  we 
must  furnish  him  a  sense  of  pleasure  in  anticipation 
of  something  we  have  for  him.  There  must  be  reasons 
for  giving  attention  that  are  convincing  to  the  inner 
nature  of  the  child  and  at  the  same  time  are  as  natural 
and  related  to  the  thing  to  be  taught  as  is  possible. 
There  are  those  who  would  insist  that  a  part  of  the 
task  of  education  is  to  teach  the  child  to  give  his 
attention,  by  voluntary  act,  whether  he  thinks  it 
worth  his  while  or  not.  It  is  sufficient  to  observe  that 
attention  as  an  end  in  itself  is  worthless.  It  is  a 
great  means.  It  is  much  better  so  to  motivate  un- 
interesting or  disagreeable  problems  by  way  of  some 
form  of  self-interest  and  satisfaction  that  this  will 
insure  the  necessary  spontaneous  attention. 

4,  Peculiar  value  of  receptiveness  in  moral  and 
religious  education. 

If  it  is  true  that  the  child  must  really  be  open  and 
receptive  in  order  to  get  the  practical,  common-place 
knowledges  of  every-day  life,  it  is  doubly  true  in 
respect  to  the  higher  moral  and  religious  instruction 
and  inspirations.  Instruction  here  must  go  deeper 
than  mere  knowledge.  It  must  reach  through  into 
purposes,  choices,  and  action.  For  this  reason  it  is 
necessary  that  all  the  emotional  states,  impulses, 
desires,  appetites,  and  the  like  shall  be  enlisted.    It 


Motivation  in  Instruction  97 

must  be  more  than  mere  theory.  Otherwise  knowl- 
edge of  moral  and  religious  things  would  be  divorced 
from  conduct,  —  and  this  is  fatal  to  both  morals  and 
rehgion.  This  openness  to  truth,  this  receptiveness 
of  the  essential  things  that  make  for  right  purposes 
and  choices,  this  attitude  of  confidence  in  and  sym- 
pathy with  all  the  incoming  stimuli,  is  essentially 
what  religious  teachers  have  always  meant  by  faith; 
It  is  lack  of  this  which  prevents  the  individual  profit- 
ing as  he  might  by  the  experiences  and  influence  of 
others.  The  normal  child  has  this  capacity  in  a 
marked  degree.  It  is  criminal  not  to  find  the  right 
way  to  bring  it  into  play  and  utilize  it  fully. 

5.  The  religious  effect  of  partial  reception  of  truth. 

The  reception  of  truth,  to  have  moral  value,  must 
be  complete  and  convincing  to  the  personality.  It 
must  be  sufficient  not  merely  to  win  a  vague  and 
momentary  assent  but  to  dominate  the  purposes 
and  the  will  continuously.  In  order  to  get  such  com- 
plete reception  for  our  truths  we  must  win  both  the 
intellectual  and  the  emotional  avenues  to  choice. 
Partial  reception,  —  either  with  the  desires  respected 
and  the  judgment  unsatisfied,  or  the  reason  convinced 
and  the  impulses  and  desires  unmet,  —  necessarily 
means  internal  conflict  and  personal  inefficiency. 
Such  an  internal  conflict  is  sure  to  involve  an  uncer- 
tainty of  purpose  and  a  vacillation  of  choices  which  is 
far  from  that  sure,  definite,  complete  carrying  of 
stimulus  through  into  conduct  that  we  have  been 
seeking.    This  situation  encourages  to  a  profession  of 


98  Use  of  Motives 

beliefs  which  are  not  allowed  to  influence  conduct. 
It  is  not  true  merely  that  "  faith  without  works  is 
dead  ";  beliefs  and  emotions  that  do  not  find  a  free 
flow  through  choices  into  actions  are  deadening  to 
all  moral  qualities.    This  is  death. 

6.  The  effect  of  proper  motivation  upon  the  degree 
and  quality  of  reception. 

If  impression  is  to  have  that  thoroughness  and 
completeness  which  will  make  it  possible  for  it  to 
issue  in  right  conduct  there  must  be  the  fewest  barriers 
within.  Not  merely  so;  we  must  seek  the  active 
alliance  of  the  child  through  active  preliminary 
appeal  to,  and  use  of,  the  great  moving  impulses 
already  having  a  place  in  its  Ufe.  This  is  having  a 
friend  within  the  fortress.  This  helps  insure  the 
spontaneous  openness  and  attention  referred  to  above. 
Half  the  battle  is  won  if  we  can  utilize  some  strong 
natural  desire  that  tends  in  the  direction  that  we 
wish  the  character  to  grow.  If  there  are  such  in- 
stincts and  impulses,  and  our  appeals  properly  respect 
them,  the  reception  of  the  truth  we  present  will  not 
be  partial,  but  total;  not  indifferent  or  reluctant,  but 
with  enthusiasm;  not  with  internal  combat  between 
impulses  and  judgment,  but  with  wholeness  of  per- 
sonality. Furthermore  such  completeness  of  reception 
more  nearly  promises  issue  in  conduct,  which  is  after 
all  the  test  of  the  impression. 

We  have  called  this  work  of  the  teacher  in  giving 
the  child  legitimate  satisfaction  in  its  learning  proc- 
esses through  appeal    to  its  natural    instincts  and 


Motivation  in  Instruction  99 

impulses,  motivation.  It  has  been  shown  to  give 
valuable  results  in  secular  learning.  It  heightens 
every  element  of  its  effectiveness.  It  is  believed  that 
this  principle  has  even  more  value  in  the  instruction 
side  of  moral  and  religious  education  than  in  general 
education,  —  if  there  is  any  difference  between  them. 
This  is  true  because  of  the  fact  stated  above  that 
information  whose  purpose  is  the  molding  of  choice 
and  conduct  must  necessarily  be  more  convincing  to 
personahty  than  that  whose  end  is  knowledge  and 
culture.  The  real  self  is  more  completely  enlisted 
and  measured  by  choice  and  conduct  than  by  accep- 
tance of  truth.  Hence  calls  to  conduct,  if  they  are  to 
be  successful,  must  be  more  completely  in  accordance 
with  the  inner  springs  of  our  life  than  is  necessary  in 
any  other  form  of  teaching. 

7.  Sunday-school  work  has  been  chiefly  instructional; 
hut  even  this  has  not  been  well  motivated. 

Our  Sunday-school  work  has  been  for  a  long  time 
directed  to  impression  and  instruction.  We  have 
taught  our  classes.  We  have  tried  to  instruct  them  in 
the  Bible  and  in  catechism.  We  have  given  them 
"  line  upon  line  and  precept  upon  precept."  We  have 
sought  to  make  permanent  impressions  upon  them. 
How  poorly  we  have  succeeded  is  suggested  by  the 
fact  that  our  children  know  so  much  more  of  the 
Greek  myths  taught  in  the  schools  than  of  the  Hebrew 
stories  taught  in  our  Sunday  schools.  There  are 
probably  several  reasons  for  this.  Much  of  our 
religious  instruction  has  been   untimely,   has  been 


100  Use  of  Motives 

unsuited  to  the  state  of  development  of  the  child, 
and  hence  has  failed  to  utilize  the  natural  tendencies 
and  interests  of  the  child  which  would  reinforce  and 
make  the  teaching  vital.  It  is  not  intended  to  create 
the  impression  that  the  work  the  Sunday  school  is 
doing  by  way  of  instruction  is  not  valuable.  It  is. 
Indeed  it  is  the  best  that  is  being  done  by  society  at 
present  for  moral  and  religious  education  of  youth. 
Yet  its  effectiveness  can  be  greatly  increased  by 
finding  and  utilizing  the  motives  which  will  more 
fully  ally  the  child  with  the  work. 

8.  Natural  discrepancy  between  child  motives  and 
adult  motives. 

If  an  enthusiastic,  zest-inspiring  motive  is  needed 
to  secure  better  work  and  more  lasting  results  mentally 
and  religiously,  we  must  realize  at  once  that  the  child 
cannot  have  the  internal  interests  and  motives  that 
would  properly  influence  the  mature  mind.  His 
experiences,  his  outlook,  his  natural  desires  and 
expressions  are  not  attuned  to  the  moral  and  religious 
standards  and  purposes  and  hopes  which  may  natu- 
rally and  properly  move  the  mature  person  who  is 
his  teacher.  He  cannot  appreciate  yet  what  will 
appeal  to  him  greatly  later.  Consequently  he  will 
not  open  his  life  to  just  the  stimuli  which  an  adult 
would  choose.  There  is  nothing  wrong  with  him  if 
his  attention  is  not  readily  given  to  what  we  find 
most  interesting.  Because  of  this  older  people  are 
likely  to  deny  the  rightness  of  these  youthful  states; 
but  we  have  very  good  authority  for  believing  that 


Motivation  in  Instruction  10 1 

these  fundamental  qualities  of  childhood  are  close 
to  the  Divine  order  of  things.  On  account  of  this  it 
frequently  happens  that  very  young  and  immature 
teachers,  in  spite  of  poor  equipment  otherwise,  can 
secure  much  greater  interest  and  better  results  than 
older  teachers  do.  They  are  closer  to  the  child's  real 
impulses. 

Motivation  is  the  natural  complement  of  grading 
the  instruction  to  the  child's  intelligence.  It  is 
grading  the  purposes  and  the  whole  approach  to  meet 
the  development  of  his  instincts  and  emotions.  Both 
are  essential  in  any  religious  education.  Now  that 
we  are  beginning  to  get  rationally  graded  Sunday- 
school  instruction,  our  next  step  is  proper  grading  of 
our  appeals  to  the  progressing  motives  of  youth. 

9.  Our  specific  task. 

If  these  things  are  true  and  if  the  naturalness  and 
intensity  of  the  motive  enhance  the  educational 
results,  the  great  problem  of  the  Sunday-school  teacher 
is  to  find  a  way  to  make  the  pupil  want  to  do  that  for 
which  the  Sunday  school  stands.  How  poor  we  are 
in  this  respect  can  be  gathered  by  any  thoughtful 
person  who  has  had  experience  with  the  average  type 
of  Sunday  school.  What  have  we  done  deliberately 
to  make  the  Sunday  school  a  place  where  a  healthy 
boy  really  wants  to  go  and  work?  The  fact  that  this 
is  not  his  state  of  mind  with  respect  to  the  Sunday 
school  is  more  the  fault  of  the  school  than  of  the  boy. 
What  motives  in  the  personality  of  the  boy  do  we 
depend  on  to  secure  attendance  at  the  class,  to  induce 


'       ■     *    ,       <  < 

102  Use  of  Motives 

him  to  do  his  work  on  the  lessons,  to  secure  real, 
cordial  liking  for  the  Sunday  school,  and  any  en- 
thusiastic doing  of  the  things  taught  in  his  class? 
Are  any  of  these  motives  natural,  internal,  spon- 
taneous, zestful  likings  of  the  boy  which  lead  him  into 
right  attitudes  and  living;  or  are  they  chiefly  some- 
thing forced  on  him  from  without,  or  so  artificial 
that  they  are  only  such  stimulants  as  a  whip  to  a 
jaded  horse? 

10.  Some  impulses  that  may  furnish  motives  for 
learning. 

We  shall  see  in  the  next  chapter  that  most  of  our 
motives  look  toward  expression  rather  than  learning, 
and  that  one  of  the  most  effective  ways  to  motivate 
instruction  is  to  do  so  indirectly  through  the  instincts 
that  lead  to  action,  thus  allowing  instruction  to 
become  incidental  to  the  problems  aroused  by  action. 
For  example,  it  often  happens  that  the  need  of 
arithmetic  in  order  to  do  something  like  building  a 
boat  will  make  a  boy  much  more  open  to  instruction. 
There  are,  however,  a  few  powerful  instincts  directly 
serving  instruction. 

(l)  Curiosity.  This  is  a  universal  impulse,  —  this 
desire  to  know,  —  and  is  at  the  foundation  of  all 
getting  of  knowledge.  It  is  shown  in  the  young  child 
by  the  perpetual  asking  of  questions.  It  leads  directly 
to  knowledge.  It  may  be  handled  in  such  a  way  as 
to  impart  knowledge  and  yet  be  left  unsatisfied. 
This  indeed  is  our  task.  Starting  simply  with  the 
child's  desire  to  know,  —  it  makes  very  little  differ- 


Motivation  in  Instruction  103 

ence  what,  —  a  teacher  of  insight  will  impart  real 
knowledge  about  it  and  so  connect  it  with  what  the 
child  needs  to  know  as  to  get  complete  "  contact " 
and  an  enlarged  curiosity.  Curiosity  is  merely  the 
beginning  name  for  the  scientific  and  philosophic 
spirit  of  later  years.  Curiosity  sets  the  problems 
which  motivate  learning. 

How  poorly  we,  as  parents  and  teachers,  use  this 
impulse  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  our  children  have 
lost  most  of  their  interest  in  nature  by  the  time  they 
reach  the  high  school.  This  is  not  because  they  have 
learned  all  that  might  interest  them.  The  child 
starts  out  with  the  utmost  appetite  for  the  things  of 
nature.  We,  in  the  course  of  his  growth,  kill  this 
interest  by  our  unpedagogical  method  of  meeting 
his  curiosity.  We  should  keep  it  alive  and  increase 
it.  Instead  we  deaden  it  or  direct  it  toward  less 
worthy  objects. 

In  our  Sunday  schools  we  do  not  make  the  use  of 
this  natural  quality  of  children  with  the  insight  and 
perseverance  we  should  have.  There  are  few  satis- 
factions so  keen  to  the  human  mind  as  this  thrill  of 
learning  something  we  wish  to  know.  In  Sunday 
schools,  as  elsewhere,  we  must  get  the  child  to  feel 
that  there  is  something  ahead  that  he  wants  to  learn. 
We  must  then  redeem  our  promise.  The  Bible  is 
fuller  of  such  things  than  any  history  we  know.  The 
Hves  of  righteous  people  are  as  full  of  such  things  as 
those  of  the  wrong-doers.  The  problems  of  life  are 
rich  with  revelations  for  which  the  child  mind  can 


104  Use  of  Motives 

be  made  eager.  To  be  sure  it  requires  good  teaching 
to  use  these  materials  in  this  way.  It  requires  what 
we  call  in  school  the  "  problem  raising  "  attitude. 
When  we  get  a  pupil  to  the  place  where  he  is  con- 
tinually raising  problems,  and  where  he  is  sure  he 
can  come  to  us  and  be  put  on  the  road  to  an  answer 
in  such  a  way  as  will  leave  him  still  more  anxious  to 
know  something  else,  we  are  sure  of  his  interest  and 
his  progress.  This  is  our  biggest  and  most  natural 
way  to  motivate  instruction. 

(2)  Trustfulness  and  confidence.  This  is  a  marked 
quality  of  early  childhood,  and  may  be  made  by  any 
teacher  or  parent  of  discretion  a  great  ally  to  instruc- 
tion, and  an  inspiration  to  learning.  It  helps  to  get 
attention  and  to  insure  the  open  gateway  into  the 
child's  personality  for  whatever  the  trusted  teacher 
says.  Young  children  are  disposed  to  accept  truth  on 
the  authority  of  their  elders.  This  tendency  must  be 
used  wisely  and  discreetly.  It  should  be  strengthened 
and  rewarded  by  absolute  justice  and  truth  on  the 
part  of  the  parent  and  teacher.  It  should  be  used  to 
get  many  vital  ideas  accepted  by  the  child,  before  he 
can  learn  them  by  experience.  It  should  not  be  abused 
by  making  appear  to  be  true  and  vital  things  which 
the  child  may  later  learn  are  mere  speculations, 
neither  should  it  be  so  used  as  to  displace  the  tendency 
to  get  truth  for  oneself.  The  place  of  such  authority 
in  teaching  ought  to  decrease  as  the  child's  own 
powers  of  investigation  increase. 

(3)  Imagination.     We  have  talked  a  good  deal  of 


Motivation  in  Instruction  105 

imagination  in  childhood  and  the  part  it  plays  in  the 
child's  own  mental  activities.  We  have  also  thought 
of  it  as  a  means  of  interpreting  the  love  for  stories 
and  the  like,  which  is  a  characteristic  of  childhood. 
But  it  has  a  function  much  more  to  our  purpose  than 
these.  It  is  one  of  the  great  means  of  opening  this 
gateway  into  the  life.  The  child  is  not  merely  imagi- 
native inside,  so  to  speak.  It  sees  and  hears  and  feels 
and  tastes  imaginatively.  It  gets  more  than  is  actually 
told  to  it.  The  whole  appreciative  and  receptive  side 
is  tinged  with  it  and  heightened  in  efficiency  by  it. 
This  merely  means  that  our  appeals  to  the  child 
should  respect  the  imagination  and  should  not  become 
too  matter-of-fact.  The  imagination  will  often  hold 
in  solution  and  precipitate  more  truth  inside  than 
pure  understanding  will. 

(4)  Advancing  the  self  in  the  estimation  of  others. 
This  is  a  quite  legitimate  motive,  provided  too  much 
use  is  not  made  of  it.  It  may  be  used  early  in  life. 
It  is  often  seen  to  work  in  classes  where  the  teacher 
has  secured  a  strong  hold  on  the  affections  and 
imagination  of  the  pupils.  It  should  not  stop  with 
the  desire  to  win  the  approval  of  the  teacher.  It 
should  extend  to  the  other  members  of  the  class,  to 
the  parents,  and  to  all  who  are  interested.  Aside 
from  its  immediate  value  in  motivating  the  receiving 
of  instruction,  when  properly  developed  it  helps  lead 
to  an  appreciation  of  public  opinion,  which  is  a  big 
part  of  all  education  in  social  morals. 

(5)  Promoting  self-advancement.  Later  in  the  child^s 


106  Use  of  Motives 

life  there  are  some  other  motives  that  may  open  the 
way  to  instruction  and  learning.  A  feeling  of  interest 
in  one's  own  growth  and  advancement  will  often  make 
a  youth  keen  for  teaching.  For  example,  the  purpose 
of  fitting  the  life  for  a  particular  career  acts  in  this 
way.  The  pleasure  in  mastering  and  conquering  may 
often  be  appealed  to  as  a  motive  for  learning  as  well 
as  for  doing.  A  sense  of  need  of  information  in  general 
or  in  particular,  no  matter  how  it  originates,  has  great 
value  here.  In  all  these  kinds  of  appeals  it  is  the 
privilege  of  the  teacher  to  help  secure  the  feeling  and 
then  supply  the  satisfaction. 

(6)  Artificial  motivation.  In  what  has  been  said 
there  has  been  an  effort  to  keep  the  motives  just  as 
close  as  possible  to  the  nature  of  the  work,  —  namely, 
to  open  the  life  of  the  child  from  within  to  receive 
instruction.  The  closer  the  motive  is  to  the  thing 
desired  the  more  the  personality  really  assimilates  the 
income.  We  often  use  in  our  Sunday  schools  a  series 
of  artificial  stimuli  which  are  of  questionable  value. 
Such  are  competitions,  prizes,  medals,  emblems, 
picnics,  Christmas  trees,  and  possibly  punishments. 
These  appeal  to  greed,  rivalry,  fear  and  other  forms 
of  selfishness  which  furnish  powerful  motives,  but 
they  lead  us  directly  away  from  the  moral  and  religious 
states  of  mind  which  we  desire  to  have  become 
habitual.  These  might  be  justified  if  we  were  seeking 
information  alone,  but  we  are  seeking  right  character 
by  way  of  information.  It  is  important  to  remember 
that  we  do  two  things  in  appealing  to  human  impulses 


Motivation  in  Instruction  107 

as  we  have  been  suggesting:  (a)  we  get  a  response  by 
way  of  this  motive,  and  (6)  we  cultivate  the  motive. 
We  cannot  afford  to  exalt  unduly  a  permanent  motive 
like  greed,  in  order  to  secure  a  temporary  right 
response.  The  response  cannot  be  more  than  tempo- 
rary with  an  artificial  or  unrelated  motive.  The 
form  of  the  response  cannot  fail  to  be  permanent  if 
we  fix  permanently  in  character  a  natural  motive  for 
it. 

What  we  do  now  in  a  superficial,  haphazard  and 
artificial  way  we  want  to  do  naturally,  thoroughly, 
and  after  a  complete  study  of  all  the  possibilities, 
with  a  full  understanding  of  its  importance  and 
meaning. 

Topics  for  Further  Study  and  Discussion 

1.  Strong  and  weak  points  of  learning  by  instruc- 
tion?   By  experience? 

2.  Attention  as  a  necessary  factor  in  learning.  As 
a  foundational  element  in  character. 

3.  Relation  between  the  following  ideas :  Attention, 
appreciation,  receptivity,  faith.  Are  these  ends  in 
themselves?    What  is  the  real  end? 

4.  Redefine  motivation  in  terms  of  the  receiving 
side  of  personality. 

5.  Analyze  the  motives  to  which  you  have  been 
trying  to  appeal  as  a  Sunday-school  teacher. 

6.  Imagination  as  an  aid  to  reception. 


108  Use  of  Motives 

Suggestive  Questions 

How  would  you  illustrate  that  attention  is  necessary 
to  learning?  Why  is  it  necessary?  In  what  various 
ways  may  the  attention  of  the  child  be  secured?  What 
do  you  think  is  the  best  of  these?  Why  is  "  faith 
without  works  dead  "?  Give  illustrations  of  conflict 
between  desires  and  judgment.  How  does  such  a 
state  affect  decision?  What  is  the  proper  work  of 
parent  and  teacher  at  such  a  time?  Give  illustrations 
of  desires  and  judgment  coinciding.  Effect.  Give 
reasons  why  natural  incentives  are  better  than 
artificial  ones.    What  do  you  mean  by  natural? 

Some  Practical  Problems 

1.  Should  the  teacher  try  to  look  at  the  thing 
taught  from  the  standpoint  of  the  pupil,  or  try  to 
get  the  pupil  to  see  it  from  the  mature  standpoint? 
Select  concrete  instances  and  show  the  practical 
bearing  of  your  answer  on  the  manner  of  teaching. 

2.  Can  you  suggest  any  practical  means  by  which 
the  teacher  may  be  enabled  to  '^  be  converted  and 
become  as  a  little  child  *'  ? 

3.  The  problem  of  answering  children's  questions 
to  best  advantage.  What  do  we  want  to  get?  Should 
we  refuse  to  answer?  Why?  Should  we  evade? 
Why?  Should  we  answer  with  complete  finaUty? 
Why?    What  then? 

4.  Draw  up  a  sound  scheme  to  motivate:  (1) 
attendance   at    Sunday   school;     (2)    study   of   the 


Motivation  in  Instruction  109 

assigned  work;  (3)  carrying  the  teachings  into 
practise.  Is  your  scheme  better  than  the  prizes, 
competitions,  and  rivalries,  usually  employed? 


References 

Athearn:  The  Church  School.  The  Pilgrim  Press, 
Boston.     $1.00 

Galloway:  The  Appeal  to  Motives  in  Religious  Edu- 
cation, in  Encyclopedia  of  Sunday  Schools  and 
Religious  Education,  Thomas  Nelson  &  Sons, 
N.  Y. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

MOTIVATING    THE    EXPRESSIVE    SIDE    OF 
SUNDAY  SCHOOL  WORK 

1.  Summary. 

We  have  seen  that  all  instruction  is  much  more 
effective  if  the  pupil  really  desires  to  know  the  thing 
we  are  trying  to  teach,  and  that  he  is  much  more  open 
and  receptive  if  he  has  motives  of  his  own  for  wanting 
to  know.  We  have  seen  that  it  is  even  more  important 
in  moral  and  religious  teaching  than  in  any  other  to 
have  the  complete  enthusiasm  of  the  pupil.  The 
Sunday  school  has  yet  very  much  to  learn  in  bringing 
the  natural  internal  impulses  to  the  aid  of  the  instruc- 
tion. We  must  find  ways  to  make  our  moral  and 
religious  instruction  appeal  to  all  the  natural  instincts 
that  make  the  child  willing  and  anxious  to  receive 
information.  The  appeals  of  the  street  are  very 
closely  adjusted  to  the  child's  desires.  Ours  must 
be  made  equally  so. 

2.  The  greater  meaning  of  expression  in  education. 
Instruction  is  a  great  source  of  ideas,  but  action  or 

expression  is  even  more  important  in  some  respects. 

We  learn  by  doing.    Even  the  truths  that  we  receive 

by  impression  become  more  really  ours  when  we  put 

them  into  practise.    Information  merely  gives  ideas. 

Ill 


112  Use  of  Motives 

Conduct  or  expression  both  gives  and  fixes  ideas, 
develops  skill,  and  forms  habits.  There  is  a  real 
possession  through  expression  that  mere  impression 
never  gives.  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive. 
It  is  more  blessed  to  do  than  to  be  told.  This  is  even 
more  true  in  moral  and  religious  matters  than  in 
ordinary  education,  as  we  have  seen.  There  can  be 
no  great  moral  or  religious  value  in  any  mental  states 
that  do  not  find  some  way  of  expressing  themselves. 
Indeed  moral  and  religious  knowledges  and  states  are 
not  really  our  own  until  they  have  been  used,  —  put 
into  practise. 

Sunday  schools  have  not  done  as  well  as  they  might 
even  in  teaching;  they  are  still  less  efficient  in  getting 
expression  of  what  they  teach.  We  really  have  no 
adequate  way  to  insure  that  our  pupil  will  put  his 
best  impressions  into  use.  This  is  a  fatal  weakness. 
One  of  the  most  urgent  tasks  of  the  Sunday  school 
is  to  find  ways  to  help  the  pupil  express  his  good  teach- 
ings and  good  resolutions. 

3.  Education  of  choice  is  the  heart  of  moral  and 
religious  education. 

It  has  been  held  throughout  this  discussion  that 
the  real  character  of  the  individual  is  expressed  in 
choice  or  decision.  This  is  the  point  at  which  the  in- 
dividual, in  the  light  of  all  his  instincts,  his  desires,  his 
experiences,  his  ideas,  his  habits,  and  his  ideals,  decides 
his  course.  If  this  is  wrong  his  whole  personality  has 
failed.  This  is  the  supreme  point  where  moral  value 
attaches.    If  we  can  insure  right  choice  we  are  sue- 


Motivating  Expression  113 

ceeding  in  our  education.  Impression  and  instruction 
have  a  large  part  in  determining  choice,  but  conduct 
and  action  are  the  only  real  tests  of  it.  We  can  only 
educate  choice  by  choosing,  and  expression  is  merely 
carrying  choice  into  effect.  Expression  is  therefore 
closer  to  choice  and  educates  it  more  directly  than 
impression  alone  does.  Of  course  the  normal  way  and 
the  best  way  to  educate  choice  is  by  impression  or 
instruction  or  stimulus  going  on  through  choice  and 
will,  into  expression.  It  is  by  coupling  impression 
and  expression  that  we  really  educate  personality. 
This,  as  we  have  seen,  is  the  complete  and  normal 
personal  reaction. 

4.  More  important  to  motivate  expression  than  im- 
pression. 

In  proportion  as  the  expressive  side  of  life  is  im- 
portant in  the  development  of  life,  is  it  necessary  to 
find  adequate  and  right  motives  to  determine  expres- 
sion. Because  action  is  a  better  measure  of  character 
than  learning  is,  and  is  at  the  same  time  more  edu- 
cative of  character,  it  becomes  very  important  that  the 
motives  called  on  to  secure  conduct  shall  be  sound.  A 
person  may  be  taught  a  lie  and  not  become  a  liar; 
one  cannot  choose  and  practise  a  lie  without  becoming 
untrue.  Appeal  to  false  and  artificial  motives  for 
learning  may  be  merely  futile  and  unfortunate; 
using  false  motives  in  securing  conduct  is  to  vitiate 
the  very  machinery  of  choice.  There  is  more  self- 
activity  in  expression  than  in  impression.  In  just  the 
same  degree  is  right  motivation  more  profitable  and 


114  Use  of  Motives 

essential  in  respect  to  conduct.  The  motives  must  be 
one's  own  in  order  that  choice  shall  have  any  value. 
5.  Superior  motivation  possible  in  expression. 
The  natural  curiosity  of  the  child  furnishes  our 
most  effective  way  to  arouse  enthusiasm  for  the  proc- 
ess of  learning,  or  receiving  impressions.  We  must 
make  the  utmost  use  of  it  in  all  good  teaching.  There 
are  some  other  natural  motives  that  look  toward  the 
reception  of  knowledge;  but  there  are  not  very 
many.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  a  number  of 
strong  native  impulses  that  push  toward  behavior. 
There  are  more  strong  instincts  leading  to  expression 
than  toward  reception.  This  is  only  another  way  of 
saying  that  the  really  important  adjustments  of  life 
are  made  by  our  behavior  rather  than  by  knowledge 
alone;  or  in  other  words  impression  or  learning  that 
does  not  pass  over  into  choices  and  conduct  has  no 
practical  value  in  life.  The  fitness  of  a  life  is  deter- 
mined more  by  what  comes  out  than  by  what  goes  in. 
Ideas,  knowledge,  desires,  habits  are  valuable  in 
practical  life  only  as  they  make  choices  and  responses 
more  sound  and  righteous.  To  insure  that  we  shall 
express  ourselves  both  vigorously  and  rightly,  many 
of  our  most  powerful  impulses  and  most  valued  satis- 
factions cluster  about  doing  things.  Most  people  in 
full  health  get  more  pleasure  out  of  expression  than 
our  of  mere  impression  and  states  of  mind.  Indeed 
the  word  emotion,  which  we  have  come  to  think  of 
rather  as  a  state  of  mind,  is  in  reality  a  term  demand- 
ing action,  —  expression.    The  reader  will  recall  that 


Motivating  Expression  115 

what  we  have  called  motivation  just  means  the  using 
of  the  natural  impulses  to  get  enthusiasm  for  our 
educational  processes.  If  such  powerful  motives  are 
back  of  our  expression,  and  if  expression  really  gives 
us  indirectly  more  accurate  knowledge  than  in- 
struction alone  and,  in  addition,  gives  skill  and 
habits,  then  we  surely  must  try  to  find  how  best  to 
motivate  it.  It  is  more  easy  to  motivate  action  than 
to  motivate  learning.  And  yet  in  our  Sunday  schools 
we  have  almost  ignored  this  aspect  of  our  oppor- 
tunities. We  instruct,  but  we  do  not  do  very  much 
to  reinforce  the  instruction  by  using  and  gratifying 
the  impulses  to  do.  We  neglect  our  most  favorable 
means  of  motivating  right  choices  in  a  field  in  which 
motivation  is  most  important  and  effective  in  molding 
life,  —  the  field  of  expression. 

6.  Essential  to  find  the  right  motives  in  educating  by 
expression. 

The  greater  appeal  of  the  impulses  to  action  and 
their  profound  effect  on  the  whole  machinery  of 
choice  make  it  even  more  essential  that  we  get  the 
right  motives  in  expressive  work  than  in  impressive 
work.  It  is  not  enough  merely  to  get  response.  We 
must  get  it  in  the  right  way.  In  other  words  we  must 
pick  and  develop  and  appeal  to  those  expressive 
instincts  and  impulses  that  are  suited  to  the  stage 
of  development  of  the  child ;  those  which  will  produce 
the  most  normal  and  appropriate  expression  for  the 
pupil.  Grading  of  expression  then  is  even  more 
important   than   grading   of  information.     There   is 


116  Use  of  Motives 

nothing  more  demoralizing  to  character  than  to  suc- 
ceed in  inspiring  modes  of  personal  expression  that 
are  false  to  the  real  nature  of  the  child.  The  thoughts 
of  a  person  of  fifty  are  not  as  much  out  of  place  in  a 
child  as  the  expression  and  conduct  would  be.  Hypoc- 
risy is  the  certain  outcome  of  trying  to  get  expression 
through  motives  which  should  not  normally  control 
the  child. 

7.  Some  of  the  natural  impulses  which  may  serve  as 
motives  for  expression. 

Roughly  there  are  two  broad  classes  of  expressive 
activities  that  give  satisfaction  to  us  and  thus  serve 
to  induce  us  to  act.  One  class  is  clearly  personal  and 
selfish;  the  other  looks  rather  toward  social  service, 
the  service  of  others.  Both  sets  of  motives  play  a 
large  part  in  impelling  us  to  action.  By  means  of 
them  we  may  educate  our  children.  Among  the  more 
personal  and  selfish  expressive  instincts  are  those  of 
getting  possessions,  of  rivalry,  of  making  things,  of 
fighting,  and  of  mastering  difficulties.  Among  those 
which  look  somewhat  more  toward  others  are  the 
impulses  of  leading,  sharing,  entertaining,  and  obey- 
ing. Somewhat  mixed  are  play,  imitation,  etc.  These 
impulses  are  very  unequal  in  their  strength;  but  the 
point  which  it  is  desired  to  make  is  this:  These  are 
real,  natural  impulses  of  youth;  they  urge  the  child 
to  action  of  one  kind  or  another.  We  too  want  the 
child  to  act  and  do  things,  because  by  doing  things  he 
learns  and  grows.  By  coupling  what  we  desire  him 
to  do  with  some  appropriate  one  of  these  natural 


Motivating  Expression  117 

yearnings  we  can  more  certainly  get  the  child  to  do 
what  we  think  is  best  for  it,  and  because  the  result 
accords  with  these  internal  impulses  the  child  will  get 
more  growth  out  of  the  doing.  It  is  not  possible  to 
discuss  each  of  these.    A  few  examples  must  serve: 

(l)  The  play  instinct.  We  are  coming  to  recognize 
that  this  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  of  the  childish 
instincts  and  one  of  the  most  educative.  Already 
we  have  learned  that  we  can  get  the  average  child  to 
do  enthusiastically  a  great  deal  that  we  desire  it  to 
do  by  making  a  "  game  "  of  it.  The  movement  for 
supervised  play  is  merely  an  effort  to  use  this  most 
educative  form  of  expression  in  building  habits  of 
fairness,  consideration,  honesty,  truthfulness,  and 
cooperation  in  the  child.  The  child  that  can,  in  his 
games,  carry  out  the  teachings  that  he  has  received 
about  these  things  is  getting  the  kind  of  practise  he 
needs  in  order  to  be  an  honest  business  man  and  a 
moral  citizen.  Play  is  sure  to  have  a  still  larger  place 
than  it  now  has  as  a  means  of  giving  expression  to 
moral  and  religious  teaching.  This  is  a  large  part  of 
the  meaning  of  the  physical  work  in  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
It  is  much  more  than  a  way  to  secure  healthy  bodies. 
It  is  to  motivate  right  choices  by  means  of  sports  and 
the  play  instinct. 

Because  of  what  has  been  said  about  the  permanent 
educative  value  of  play  it  is  essential  that  the  early 
games  shall  insure  honesty,  consideration,  fairness, 
self-control  and  the  like  just  as  much  as  enthusiasm, 
self-activity  and  pleasure.    Indeed  all  these  must  be 


118  Use  of  Motives 

bound  up  into  the  child's  conception  of  play,  so  as  to 
become  a  habit.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  early  play 
in  the  home  and  on  the  street,  and  about  the  school 
should  be  supervised  and  guided  both  in  its  methods 
and  purposes  by  parents  and  teachers  who  under- 
stand its  value. 

(2)  The  instinct  of  imitation.  This  is  a  quite  power- 
ful impulse  in  young  children.  It  may  be  conscious 
or  unconscious,  but  it  surely  determines  much  of  the 
conduct  of  young  people.  It  is  clear  that  this  spirit 
may  be  made  a  great  ally  for  securing  right  conduct. 
Reinforced  by  the  instinct  of  repetition  which  is  also 
characteristic  of  children,  right  habits  may  be  formed 
with  very  little  formal  impression  or  teaching. 

Clearly  then  the  parent  and  teacher  should  do 
nothing  in  the  presence  of  the  child  which  he  would 
not  be  willing  to  have  the  child  reproduce.  We 
cannot  have  wrong  impressions  striking  his  senses  and 
hope  to  keep  his  inner  springs  of  action  pure. 

(3)  The  desire  for  ownership.  This  impulse  secures 
much  of  the  activity  of  mankind.  It  is  operative  in 
children.  It  can  be  used  to  motivate  industry, 
frugality,  and  other  habits  that  are  valuable.  The 
fact  that  it  may  lead  to  stealing  on  the  one  hand  or 
to  miserliness  on  the  other  is  no  argument  against 
legitimate  appeals  to  it.  Many  parents  would  find 
what  is  drudgery  to  their  children  wonderfully  trans- 
formed if  the  children  were  assured  a  share  of  the 
returns  from  what  they  do. 

While  this  motive  is  useful  and  worthy  there  is  no 


Motivating  Expression  119 

question  that  the  artificial  emphasis  placed  on  it  by 
modern  society  makes  it  dangerous.  There  is  scarcely 
an  impulse  more  abused  in  our  modern  civilization. 
Its  use  in  childhood  should  be  accompanied  by  the 
sanest  sort  of  emphasis  upon  social  sharing  and 
service  that  develop  right  attitudes  in  the  use  of 
possessions. 

(4)  The  impulse  to  he  "  doing  things  ''  or  making 
something.  This  is  somewhat  indefinite,  and  yet 
every  parent  will  recognize  that  it  is  real  for  strong, 
healthy  children.  It  leads  of  course,  straight  to 
behavior,  or,  as  we  are  too  prone  to  feel,  to  mis- 
behavior. We  may  presume  on  the  fact  that  the 
average  child  is  happier  at  some  activity.  Motiva- 
tion of  this  merely  means  to  couple  what  we  think  the 
child  should  do  with  this  impulse  and  skilfully  to  pilot 
the  child  into  the  doing,  seeing  that  an  adequate 
satisfaction  comes  because  of  it.  We  may  class  what 
the  child  does  as  play,  work,  and  drudgery.  Play  is 
motivated  by  large  natural  impulses;  drudgery  is 
work  that  is  not  properly  motivated.  As  soon  as 
anything  has  sufficient  rewards  ahead  of  it  to  dominate 
the  interests  it  ceases  to  be  drudgery.  Drudgery  is 
not  educative.  Any  work  may  be  so  motivated  as 
to  make  it  educative. 

(5)  The  impulse  to  he^^  it/'  —  the  instinct  of  leader- 
ship. This  is  a  splendid  means  of  giving  motive  to 
expression.  Most  of  the  qualities  about  which  we 
teach  our  pupils  may  be  developed  in  connection  with 
this.     Most  pupils  have  ability  to  lead  in  something. 


120  Use  of  Motives 

If  we  can  devise  ways  in  which  the  pupil  may  express 
this  instinct  we  can  couple  with  it  the  attitudes  which 
right  leaders  and  followers  must  possess.  The  prac- 
tise of  leadership  is  the  only  way  to  develop  leaders 
and  to  give  them  good  and  successful  qualities. 

(6)  The  impulse  of  fighting.  Possibly  most  of  us 
regard  this  as  an  evil  and  archaic  tendency.  We  must 
recognize,  however,  that  it  has  had  a  rather  important 
place  in  human  development.  We  are  often  puzzled 
to  know  how  to  control  it.  Perhaps  it  seems  wholly 
impossible  to  think  of  using  this  spirit  directly  to 
furnish  motive  and  momentum  to  something  worth 
while.  Nevertheless  it  is  quite  possible.  Usually 
fighting  in  children  comes  as  the  primal  response  to 
something  unfair,  aggravating,  overbearing,  and  the 
like.  However,  it  expresses  itself  in  the  concrete 
against  persons.  It  is  quite  possible  to  idealize  and 
abstract  this  and  turn  the  fighting  spirit  against  the 
unfairness,  wrong,  or  other  difficulties  that  threaten 
destruction  of  personality  instead  of  against  per- 
sonality itself.  Our  object  in  trying  to  use  these 
natural  impulses  to  motivate  conduct  is  both  to 
strengthen  conduct  and  to  redirect  the  primal  im- 
pulses. 

(7)  The  impulse  to  share.  This  impulse  is  just  as 
native  and  primal  and  satisfaction-giving  as  fighting 
or  gaining  possessions.  It  leads,  through  sympathy 
and  understanding,  toward  social  service.  Much 
more  enthusiasm  can  be  aroused  in  a  class  of  boys  for 
some  suitable  form  of  social  service  than  for  any 


Motivating  Expression  121 

amount  of  instruction  or  information,  and  much 
more  work  can  be  had  by  way  of  it.  It  is  needless 
to  say  that  the  satisfaction  that  comes  from  actually 
doing  something  for  other  people  is  much  more  keen 
than  can  come  from  being  taught  the  duty  of  helping 
others.  This  satisfaction  is  the  thing  that  determines 
the  desire  to  have  the  experience  repeated.  It  is  the 
really  impelling  thing. 

Topics  for  Further  Study  and  Discussion 

1.  Why  is  it  that  doing  things  has  more  fixing  power 
in  education  than  learning  things?  Make  a  careful 
study  of  the  factors  on  which  it  depends. 

2.  Activity  is  more  satisfying  than  impressions. 
Why?    Corollaries  of? 

3.  What  connections  with  other  social  agencies 
must  the  Sunday  schools  make  if  they  really  aspire 
to  help  guide  the  expressive  activities  of  their  boys 
and  girls?  Why?  Do  you  see  any  way  to  accomplish 
this? 

4.  The  grading  of  Expressive  work.    Why  desirable? 

5.  The  movement  for  supervised  play?  Is  it 
sound?    Why? 

Suggestive  Questions 

Why  is  false  conduct  a  more  vital  matter  than  false 
teachings  and  impressions?  If  belief  and  knowledge 
are  not  allowed  to  influence  conduct,  do  they  have  any 
value?  Why  is  it  more  easy  to  motivate  expression 
than  learning?     What  is  the  result  of  encouraging 


122  Use  of  Motives 

expressions  which  are  not  normal  to  the  state  of 
development  of  the  child?  Why  is  it  desirable  to 
change  back  and  forth  from  one  to  another  form  of 
expression?  Is  it  possible  to  overemphasize  and 
overindulge  the  play  and  amusement  impulse? 
What  can  we  do  to  avoid  the  danger? 

Some  Practical  Problems 

1.  Suppose  the  teacher  desires  to  help  the  child 
become  more  obedient  in  the  home,  thoughtful  of 
the  mother,  or  cheerful,  how  can  the  Sunday  school 
assist  in  practise? 

(1)  The  parent  should  know  what  the  teacher  has 
in  mind  and  be  brought  to  sympathize  with  it. 

(2)  In  impressing  the  child  the  teacher  must  make 
his  statement  of  the  values  and  satisfactions  in  obedi- 
ence and  thoughtfulness  as  concrete  and  appealing 
as  possible.  The  child  must  be  convinced  through 
the  warmest,  most  impelling  motives.     (What?) 

(3)  The  teacher  should  not  stop  short  of  a  firm 
resolution  in  the  child's  mind  to  make  a  real  trial 
during  a  limited  time. 

(4)  The  parent  should  see  that  the  effort  of  the 
child  is  recognized,  is  made  easy,  and  gets  the  full 
reward  in  the  form  of  increased  appreciation  and 
satisfaction. 

(5)  Some  sort  of  a  report  should  be  made  by  the 
child  to  the  teacher,  and  conference  held  on  the  results. 

(6)  Renewed  resolution  by  the  child,  and  continued 
support  by  parents  and  teachers. 


Motivating  Expression  123 

2.  Intermittent  emphasis.  It  is  not  best  to  keep 
preaching  on  one  form  of  expression  until  the  child 
is  weary  of  it.  Get  your  response;  and  then  pass  to 
something  else.  Later  return  and  build  to  a  still 
higher  level.  Let  the  child  understand  that  the  whole 
thing  is  progressive;  and  teach  it  to  demand  and 
watch  for  and  recognize  growth  in  its  own  qualities. 

3.  Cigaret  smoking.  What  are  the  impulses  that 
press  the  boy  to  this  and  similar  things?  Analyze 
carefully.  To  what  impulses  and  motives  is  it  possible 
to  appeal  to  meet  and  overcome  these?  Which  of 
them  are  most  valuable  and  reliable?    Why? 

4.  The  discovery  to  parents  of  their  obligations  and 
opportunities  to  study  and  use  the  expressive  impulses 
suggested  in  Section  7  of  this  chapter. 

5.  How  can  we  Sunday-school  teachers  assist  in 
securing  an  increase  in  respect  for  authority  and  law 
and  the  rights  of  others  on  the  part  of  children? 


References 

Athearn:  The  Church  School.  The  Pilgrim  Press, 
Boston.    $L00 

McMurry:  Use  of  Biography  in  Religious  Instruc- 
tion. Chapter  VIII  in  Principles  of  Religious 
Education.  Longman's,  Green,  and  Co.,  N.  Y. 
$1.25 


CHAPTER  IX 

CERTAIN   PRINCIPLES   TO   GUIDE  THE 
TEACHER  IN  HIS  APPEAL  TO  MOTIVES 

1.  Review  of  the  natural  motives. 

In  our  partial  analysis  of  personality  and  of  the 
various  types  of  motives  that  are  strong  in  youth  and 
should  be  respected  and  used  by  the  religious  educator, 
we  have  found  three  series  which  may  be  considered 
separately,  although  they  are  so  completely  inter- 
twined that  they  cannot  possibly  be  separated  in  our 
use  of  them. 

There  is,  in  the  first  place,  the  powerful  series  of 
native  impulses  that  appear  early  in  life  and  furnish 
a  very  large  part  of  the  internal  stimulus  to  conduct. 
Among  these  are  curiosity,  tendency  to  imitate,  desire 
for  possession,  rivalry,  and  restlessness.  In  the  main 
these  are  quite  strong  enough  by  nature,  and  need 
only  to  be  recognized,  respected,  utilized,  and  directed. 
On  the  whole  they  should  tend  to  diminish  and  take 
a  subordinate  place  as  age  develops  and  refines  the 
personality. 

In  a  second  group  are  some  capacities  and  ten- 
dencies, such  as  those  of  confiding,  loving,  obeying, 
fearing,  hating,  and  imagining.  They  are  very  much 
subject  to  education  by  external  influences,  —  more 

125 


126  Use  of  Motives 

so  even  than  the  impulses  mentioned  above,  —  and 
they  color  character  quite  as  profoundly.  It  is  a 
large  part  of  education  to  develop  them  properly  and 
to  enable  the  individual  to  focus  them  on  the  right 
objects. 

A  third  group,  important  in  all  education,  comprises 
certain  expressive  instincts  whereby  the  natural 
outflow  of  youthful  energy  is  guided.  Since  we  really 
grow  by  what  we  do  quite  as  much  as  by  what  enters 
into  us,  and  since  all  children  seek  to  express  them- 
selves in  one  way  or  another,  it  is  very  important  that 
their  expression  be  connected  with  the  best  possible 
impulses  on  the  inside  and  take  the  most  wholesome 
forms  outwardly.  Chief  among  these  forms  of  expres- 
sion are  play,  certain  more  serious  types  of  activity 
which  are  often  destructive,  the  effort  to  lead  and  to 
accomplish  results,  and  the  tendency  to  repeat 
actions  that  have  given  pleasure. 

2.  Selection  of  appropriate  motives. 

Out  of  these,  and  doubtless  many  other  dominant 
motives  and  impulses  of  childhood,  which  are  never 
of  equal  strength  in  any  two  children,  we  as  parents 
and  teachers  must  select  from  time  to  time  the  proper 
ones  for  use.  We  must  find  the  proper  order  and 
degree  of  emphasis  to  enable  us  to  help  the  child 
develop  so  that  his  impulses  shall  ultimately  be  rightly 
guided  and  controlled  and  balanced  from  within, 
under  the  force  of  his  total  character,  rather  than 
respond  riotously  to  external  circumstances  solely. 
In  an  outHne  discussion  of  this  brevity  it  is  not  possible 


Certain  Principles  to  Guide  the  Teacher        127 

to  indicate  all  the  important  principles  by  which  the 
teachers  of  children  should  be  guided  in  motivating 
the  moral  and  rehgious  work  undertaken  by  them, 
even  if  we  knew  them  all,  which  we  by  no  means 
do.  Systematic  work  of  this  kind  is  really  just  begin- 
ning. Years  of  careful  experimenting  and  careful 
testing  of  the  results  will  be  necessary  to  give  us  a 
scientific  foundation  for  the  work  we  are  trying  to 
do.  In  the  statements  which  follow  are  incorporated 
merely  some  of  the  conclusions  which  seem  most 
reasonable  from  the  general  study  of  education.  While 
put  positively  and  briefly,  there  is  no  wish  to  be 
dogmatic. 

3.  Egoistic  impulses  arise  early. 

In  general,  the  self-seeking  impulses  appear  in 
personality  first,  and  early  get  headway  and  tend  to 
dominate.  The  average  religious  teacher  finds  it 
hard  to  believe  that  these  are  not  wholly  of  the 
devil.  They  do  in  very  many  of  us  come  to  run 
riot  and  are  the  basis  of  much  that  is  low  and 
unworthy.  They  are,  however,  apparently  perfectly 
normal  and  have  the  definite  function  of  building 
up  and  emphasizing  the  selfhood.  Here  belong  such 
forms  of  self-assertion  as  contrariness,  rivalry,  fight- 
ing, desire  to  possess,  striving  for  leadership,  and 
so  forth. 

4.  Later  origin  of  the  unselfish  motives. 
Ordinarily,   the   unselfish   and   social   qualities   of 

personality,  which  are  equally  normal  and  natural 
with  the  former,  come  later  in  life  and  should  function 


128  Use  of  Motives 

in  controlling,  guiding  and  chastening  the  more  selfish. 
Here  come  such  impulses  as  confidence,  sympathy, 
love,  obedience,  imitation  and  hero-worship,  self- 
sacrifice  for  others,  and  their  like. 

5.  How  reconcile  these? 

The  general  task  of  the  educator  is  so  to  stimulate, 
exercise,  and  guide  the  expression  of  these  natural 
impulses,  both  selfish  and  unselfish,  as  they  show 
themselves,  that  each  shall  make  the  permanent 
y  contribution  to  personality  which  the  Creator  in- 
tended it  should  make,  and  at  the  proper  time  retire 
into  a  place  subordinate  to  the  higher  qualities  as 
they  come  into  view.  The  so-called  lower  impulses 
are  not  in  themselves  unholy;  they  only  become  so 
when  they  are  abnormally  developed,  or  are  not  sub- 
ordinated properly  to  the  better. 

6.  Legitimate  use  of  the  self-seeking  impulses. 

It  is  believed  that  the  self-seeking  impulses  will 
dominate  the  later  life  least  if  they  are  allowed  their 
legitimate  place  in  early  life,  being  neither  unduly 
suppressed  nor  overemphasized.  Take,  as  an  example, 
the  very  general  desire  to  possess  things.  In  early 
life,  before  the  somewhat  advanced  idea  of  private 
property  is  fully  realized,  many  children,  who  by 
proper  handhng  later  develop  into  perfectly  normal, 
well-behaved,  self-controlled  people,  are  disposed 
to  take  things  which  are  not  theirs.  This  is  not  at 
all  uncommon  among  children.  The  future  of  these 
children  is  largely  in  the  hands  of  their  teachers.  If 
this  tendency  and  impulse  to  possess  is  recognized 


Certain  Principles  to  Guide  the  Teacher       129 

as  normal  and  having  a  place  in  life,  and  yet  subject 
to  control  from  within  through  other  and  higher 
tendencies,  equally  normal,  —  well.  If  it  is  unduly 
stimulated  and  exercised  early  in  life  it  may  readily 
take  control  of  the  life,  as  avarice.  If,  on  the  contrary, 
it  is  denied,  derided,  abused,  arbitrarily  suppressed, 
it  is  likely  to  result  in  thievery,  coupled  with  avarice 
or  with  a  reckless  indifference  to  property  both  of 
self  and  others.  Other  of  these  deeply  ingrained 
selfish  motives  obey  similar  laws. 

7.  What  we  most  need  to  learn. 

It  follows,  therefore,  that  the  most  serious  tasks  of 
parents  and  teachers  of  children  are:  first,  to  find  the 
time  and  order  of  development  of  the  dominant  traits 
and  qualities  of  our  natures  and  the  contribution 
they  ought  to  make  to  character;  and,  second,  to 
learn  the  degree  of  emphasis  necessary  to  enable  them 
to  do  this  work  and  make  their  contribution  to  the 
higher  qualities  which  cannot  yet  be  appealed  to 
directly,  without  giving  them  undue  prominence 
in  the  permanent  motives  of  the  life.  While  we  are 
getting  some  idea  as  to  the  answers  to  be  given  to 
these  questions,  no  one  at  present  would  undertake 
to  make  a  definite  schedule;  and,  further,  while  we 
all  follow  somewhat  similar  courses  in  our  develop- 
ment, no  two  individuals  are  exactly  alike.  This 
makes  the  task,  in  very  large  measure,  one  of  indi- 
vidual study  of  individuals.  This  is  where  insight  on 
the  part  of  the  parent  and  teacher  is  essential  to 
success. 


130  Use  of  Motives 

8.  The  Sunday-school  dilemma. 
Pedagogically,  the  dilemma  of  the  Sunday  school 

has  been  this:  (1)  Shall  we  motivate  work  which 
we  feel  to  be  worth  while,  though  apparently  not  very 
attractive  in  itself,  by  concrete  appeals  to  dubious 
motives,  such  as  greed,  rivalry,  etc.,  that  have  no 
direct  relation  to  the  thing  to  be  done  but  are  big  in 
the  child  and  which  may  be  unduly  and  even  hurtfuUy 
stimulated  by  the  appeal?  Or  (2)  shall  we  try,  with 
a  very  large  risk  of  failure,  to  motivate  the  work 
merely  by  those  larger  appeals  to  the  higher  motives 
of  duty  and  righteousness,  which  in  the  nature  of  the 
case  cannot  thus  early  have  a  big  place  in  the  child's 
character?  Each  alternative  has  certain  strength  and 
weakness  in  a  practical  way. 

9.  The  upward-looking  impulses. 

In  this  uncertainty  (pictured  in  Section  8),  the 
Sunday  school  has  almost  completely  overlooked 
important  means  of  motivation  which  have  all  the 
advantages  of  the  more  selfish  appeals  without  their 
pedagogical  and  moral  shortcomings.  Of  almost,  if 
not  quite,  equal  intensity  with  the  more  crass  forms 
of  selfish  impulse,  —  as  rivalry,  gain,  pride,  etc.,  — 
are  the  impulses  of  curiosity,  imitation,  play,  repeti- 
tion, and  the  expression  of  one's  leadership.  At  the 
beginning,  possibly  these  motives  are  just  as  selfish 
as  the  others  in  that  they  originally  minister  to 
low  forms  of  satisfaction;  hut  they  are  more  subject 
to  refinement  and  are  directly  connected  with  the  higher 
intellectual  and  spiritual  capabilities  and  tendencies. 


Certain  Principles  to  Guide  the  Teacher       131 

For  example,  curiosity  is  as  powerful  a  motive  as 
greed;  but  it  leads  directly  to  information,  knowl- 
edge, breadth  of  vision.  Greed  cannot.  Greed 
rather  increases  by  what  it  feeds  on,  and  lowers  the 
resources  of  personality.  The  impulse  to  play  and 
to  do  things,  which  is  the  other  side  of  restlessness, 
is  just  as  prevalent  and  strong  as  the  feeling  of  rivalry; 
but  it  leads  directly  to  activity,  work,  output,  and 
skill,  and  only  needs  to  be  guided  to  be  the  most 
educative  thing  possible.  It  is  not,  like  rivalry,  in 
danger  of  degenerating  into  ugly  and  harmful  per- 
sonal states.  Finally,  the  impulse  toward  repetition 
is  as  strong  and  early  an  impulse  as  stubbornness; 
but  it  leads  directly  to  habits  and  skill,  through  doing 
over  and  over  attractive  things.  This  formation  of 
right  habits  is  by  all  means  the  most  helpful  thing 
we  can  contribute  to  youth  by  our  educational  proc- 
esses. This,  indeed,  sums  up  the  balanced  result 
of  all  our  purposes:  right  habits  of  thinking  and 
speaking;  right  habits  of  choosing;  right  habits  of 
action. 

10.  Superiority  of  natural  over  artificial  appeals. 

In  conclusion,  it  seems  that  we  should  strive,  as 
sponsors  for  the  Sunday  school,  to  make  a  more 
vigorous  appeal  to  those  impulses  of  childhood  which 
are  at  once  strong  and  prevalent,  themselves  capable 
of  proper  development  and  permanent  refinement, 
and  connect  naturally  with  the  higher  qualities  of 
wisdom,  rightness,  and  self-control  which  we  seek  to 
gain.    Concretely,  should  we  not  improve  our  peda- 


132  Use  of  Motives 

gogical  position  if  we  drop  our  dependence  (for  motiva- 
tion) on  our  picnics,  our  Christmas  trees,  our  indi- 
vidual prizes  and  badges  and  medals,  our  stimulation 
of  individual  and  class  rivalries,  and  the  like,  mingled 
with  some  attempt  at  exciting  fear  for  the  hereafter; 
and  substitute  for  these  the  biggest,  sanest  use  we  can 
make  of  the  native  curiosity  of  childhood,  its  impulse 
to  imitate,  its  natural  trustfulness  and  sympathy  in 
and  for  all,  its  legitimate  play  instincts,  its  desire  to  be 
doing  something  and  to  be  producing  results,  and  its 
liking  for  leadership?  It  is  surely  true  that  there  is 
enough  in  the  lives  of  God's  children  since  the  race 
began,  if  properly  handled,  to  appeal  to  his  curiosity 
and  lead  it  on;  there  is  enough  that  is  true  and  good 
in  life  now  and  in  the  past  to  win  his  sympathy  and 
confidence  and  have  them  ripen  into  Christian  faith 
and  optimism;  there  is  certainly  enough  to  be  done 
in  his  own  life  and  relations  to  challenge  and  give 
scope  [to  his  full  expressive  powers,  no  matter  how 
much  of  a  boy  he  may  be,  nor  how  much  of  a  saint. 

11.  Summary. 

To  sum  up,  we  may  make  great  strides  forward  in 
getting  our  young  people  in  accord  with  what  we  are 
trying  to  do  for  them  by  a  conscious,  wise,  and  per- 
sistent use  of  their  natural,  homely  qualities.  We 
desire  them  to  have  the  disposition,  the  knowledge, 
the  power,  and  the  habit  of  making  the  righteous 
choice  under  all  conditions.  Through  curiosity  we 
motivate  for  knowledge;  through  restlessness  and  the 
instincts  of  play  and  leadership   we  motivate  for 


Certain  Principles  to  Guide  the  Teacher       133 

activity  and  work;  through  trustfulness  and  confi- 
dence and  the  impulses  to  share  and  serve  we  motivate 
the  attitudes  that  elevate  the  emotions  and  desires 
and  bring  faith  and  optimism  and  love;  and  through 
the  impulses  to  imitate  and  to  repeat  satisfying  and 
pleasurable  experiences  we  motivate  for  habit  and 
skill.  And  in  it  all  we  see  to  it  that  the  child  experi- 
ences the  satisfaction  which  a  right  choice  should 
have,  and  the  dissatisfaction  which  wrong  choices 
bring. 


Topics  fob  Further  Study  and  Discussion 

1.  The  inevitable  limitations  of  a  character  con- 
trolled solely  by  the  external  conditions:  limitations 
in  respect  to  happiness;  in  respect  to  the  quality  of 
the  personality. 

2.  The  limitations  of  a  personality  controlled  by 
impulse  merely. 

3.  Make  a  list  of  all  the  instincts  which  you  recog- 
nize, arranged  somewhat  in  the  order  in  which  you 
think  they  become  important  in  influencing  life. 

4.  The  natural  impulses  most  liable  to  be  neglected 
and  undeveloped. 

5.  Those  most  likely  to  be  used  and  strengthened 
unduly  and  to  become  subject  to  abuse. 

6.  Those  which  can  safely  be  emphasized  and  refined 
throughout  life. 


134  Use  of  Motives 

Suggestive  Questions 

If  we  get  a  right  action  what  difference  does  it 
make  just  which  of  the  various  possible  impulses  may 
be  back  of  it?  Why  is  it  entirely  appropriate  that  the 
more  selfish  instincts  mature  first?  What  is  meant 
when  it  is  suggested  that  the  unselfish  impulses  and 
reason  may  come  to  inhibit  the  lower  impulses? 
Why  is  much  of  life,  especially  immature  life,  a  matter 
of  inhibition?  Why  does  inhibition  mark  progress? 
Why,  in  a  really  growing  spirit,  is  inhibition  more 
easy  with  time?  When  may  we  say  that  we  are 
making  natural,  and  when  artificial,  appeals?  Why 
is  one  more  valuable  than  the  other? 

Some  Practical  Problems 

1.  What  practical  problems  arise  from  the  fact 
that  the  selfish  instincts  mature  before  the  unselfish? 

2.  The  practical  dangers  of  making  the  grosser 
forms  of  selfishness  permanent  and  dominant  in  life. 
Illustrate  by  self-will,  gratification  of  the  animal 
desires,  desire  to  possess  things,  fighting  impulse, 
anger,  and  the  like. 

3.  Enumerate,  and  estimate  the  value  of,  any 
practical  methods  that  have  been  suggested  to 
inhibit  and  diminish  the  strength  of  these  undesirable 
impulses.  For  example:  Bodily  punishment  and  the 
fear  of  it;  other  forms  of  punishment,  here  and  here- 
after; loss  of  approval  and  companionship  of  parents; 
public  opinion;  use  of  other  active  impulses  that  lead 
in  other  directions;  sense  of  duty.     Find  others. 


Certain  Principles  to  Guide  the  Teacher       135 

References 

Athearn:    The  Church  School.     The  Pilgrim  Press, 

Boston.    $1.00 
Bagley:  Educative  Values.     Part  I.    The  Macmillan 

Co.,  N.  Y. 
Galloway:    Report  of   Committee  on  Fundamentals 

in  School  Science  and  Mathematics.     Chicago. 
Galloway:     Education  of   the  Will,  in   Encyclopedia 

of    Sunday    Schools    and     Religious    Education. 

Thomas  Nelson  and  Sons,  N.  Y. 
Aims  of  Religious  Education:    Religious  Education 

Association.    Chicago.    $1.00 


CHAPTER  X 

FORMS  OF  EXPRESSIVE  WORK  SUITABLE  TO 
SUNDAY  SCHOOLS:   HAND-WORK 

1.  Review  of  the  principle  of  expressional  work. 

We  have  seen  that  instruction,  impression  and 
stimulation  have  been  much  more  emphasized  in 
Sunday  schools  than  has  the  finding  of  ways  to  secure 
the  carrying  of  these  into  actual  practise  in  life.  We 
have  been  too  content  to  do  our  teaching  as  best  we 
could  and  to  leave  to  chance  the  ''  follow  through  "  of 
the  teaching  into  conduct.  In  general  education  we 
have  found  that  the  best  results  come  from  a  complete 
mental  reaction,  —  instruction,  self-active  mental 
states,  and  suitable  expression.  In  getting  internal 
character  it  is  as  important  to  supervise  and  suggest 
the  right  forms  of  expression  as  to  secure  right  stimuli. 
Inasmuch  as  all  moral  and  religious  qualities  and 
states,  in  order  to  be  of  any  value,  must  be  one's  very 
own,  it  becomes  even  more  important  here  than  in 
general  education  that  the  responses  and  conduct 
shall  be  rightly  controlled  from  within.  Therefore  it 
is  all  the  more  essential  that  the  child  shall  be  insured, 
and  inspired  to  have,  adequate  expression  of  his  best 
moral  and  religious  impulses. 

We   have   also   noticed   that  expression^educates 

137  "*" 


138  Use  of  Motives 

personality  even  more  effectively  than  instruction, 
if  it  is  properly  graded.  Expression  must  be  very 
accurately  graded,  however,  to  the  degree  of  develop- 
ment of  the  child.  Otherwise  we  have  an  effort  to 
express  states  which  are  not  really  experienced, 
and  this  is  the  essence  of  hypocrisy.  Very  many  of 
the  natural  instincts  look  straight  toward  expression 
and  action.  This  fact  really  indicates  to  us  the  rela- 
tive importance  of  expression  in  molding  and  fixing 
personality.  It  also  makes  it  all  the  more  binding  that 
we  Sunday-school  teachers,  in  common  with  all 
other  teachers  of  righteousness,  shall  find  natural 
and  suitable  modes  of  expression  for  the  normal 
impulses  that  can  in  any  way  be  made  to  contribute 
to  the  disposition  and  habit  of  choosing  the  right.  We 
must  have  right  choice ;  and  in  consequence  we  must 
use  the  great,  wholesome,  internal  impulses  to  motivate 
right  choices  and  actions. 

2.  Grades  of  expressional  work  in  the  Sunday  school. 

While  everything  we  do  is  very  educative,  and 
what  we  do  with  enthusiasm  and  zest  is  particularly 
so,  it  remains  true  that  some  forms  of  expression  are 
more  valuable  than  others;  just  as  some  truths, 
while  no  more  true,  are  more  important  than  others. 
For  example,  making  a  map  of  Palestine  or  a  model  of 
the  tabernacle  is  expressive  work;  and  each  of  these 
things  may  be  made  so  appealing  to  the  boyish  im- 
pulses as  to  secure  a  large  amount  and  a  fine  quality 
of  work,  which  will  give  him  a  mastery  of  facts  that 
could  not  be  secured  in  any  other  way.    But  neither 


Forms  of  Expressive  Work  139 

of  these  forms  of  expression  is  as  valuable  as  honest 
and  honorable  playing  of  a  baseball  game  in  the 
presence  of  the  temptation  to  cheat  or  bully;  or 
actually  to  uphold  the  right  at  any  point  in  the  face 
of  opposition. 

For  this  reason  it  becomes  important  for  us  to 
make  some  analysis  of  the  forms  and  grades  of  ex- 
pressive work  if  we  are  going  to  try  to  use  the 
principles  of  motivation  in  reference  to  it.  We  have 
seen  that  activity  is  more  easy  to  motivate  than 
learning,  because  so  many  of  our  impulses  run  to 
action,  and  only  a  few  to  learning.  We  have  found 
that  action  is  more  educative  of  personality  than 
instruction  is.  It  is  therefore  essential  that  we  study 
most  carefully  the  outlets  of  sound  activity  and  the 
incentives  to  it  which  we  Sunday-school  teachers  have 
at  our  command. 

We  may  roughly  indicate  the  following  types  of 
expressional  work: 

(1)  Hand-work,  of  all  kinds.  This  includes  all  the 
customary  activities  of  hand  and  brain  in  which  we 
work  with  materials. 

(2)  Representative  activity,  including  all  sorts  of 
repetitive,  imitative,  reproductive  behavior.  This 
embraces  dramatization,  plays,  pageants,  recitation, 
and  the  like  in  which  emotions,  ideals,  and  acts  of 
other  people  are,  through  the  imagination  of  the  child, 
made  his  own  temporarily  and  expressed  in  suitable 
ways. 

(3)  Original  activity,   including    all    the    student's 


140  Use  of  Motives 

own  behavior  in  all  his  social  relations.  This  is  of 
course  the  real  self-expression,  and  the  thing  we  are 
seeking. 

It  will  be  seen  that  these  forms  of  expressional  work 
are  progressive  in  importance,  and  that  (l)  and  (2) 
are  valuable  only  as  they  lead  in  one  way  or  another 
to  the  rightness  of  (3). 

3.  Forms  of  hand-work  suitable  to  the  Sunday  school. 

Important  and  valuable  as  this  form  of  expression 
has  already  shown  itself  to  be  in  itself  and  in  motivat- 
ing Sunday-school  attendance,  good  behavior,  and 
the  study  of  the  Bible  and  other  sources  of  human 
guidance,  it  is  no  part  of  the  purpose  of  this  book  to 
dwell  upon  it.  The  pioneer  work  of  Dr.  Littlefield  ^  is 
still  the  classic  in  this  field,  and  the  teacher  must  be 
referred  to  it  for  all  details  of  its  use.  Dr.  Littlefield 
has  recognized  the  following  helpful  classes  of  hand- 
work for  Sunday  schools : 

(l)  Illustrative  work.  This  in  all  its  varieties, 
whether  of  paper-tearing,  drawings  and  colorings, 
modelings  of  all  sorts  of  objects  in  plastic  materials, 
or  constructing  of  more  permanent  ones,  is  an  effort 
to  furnish  means  suitable  to  the  child  to  express  in 
material  ways  some  part  of  an  idea,  or  event,  or  story 
that  may  have  come  to  him.  It  is  the  simplest  and 
most  concrete  form  of  expressive  work  and  has  a 
range  suitable  to  all  from  beginners  to  seniors. 

Its  value  lies  in  these  facts :  it  furnishes  the  teacher 

» Hand-work  in  the  Sunday  School.    Milton  S.  Littlefield.      The  Sunday 
School  Times  Co.    Philadelphia,  1908. 


Forms  of  Expressive  Work  141 

a  chance  actually  to  understand  where  the  pupil's 
thoughts  are,  and  to  find  out  his  powers  of  expression ; 
it  helps  the  child  to  clarify  his  own  ideas  through  the 
effort  to  express;  it  enforces  a  certain  attentiveness 
to  details  which  is  the  foundation  of  all  worth-while 
character;  it  develops  experience  and  skill  in  giving 
clear  expression  to  internal  states ;  and,  best  of  all,  it 
delights  the  young  child  with  the  satisfactions  that 
cluster  round  normal  activities  and  enlists  the  whole 
of  himself  in  the  making  of  much  more  effort  than  he 
would  make  for  learning  or  any  other  form  of  progress 
for  its  own  sake.  In  a  word,  it  motivates  experience, 
habit-formation,  and  learning.  It  depends  on  us 
whether  the  experiences  and  habits  and  information 
he  gets  are  worthy.  Clearly  it  is  waste  of  time  to  try 
to  motivate  something  which  is  not  in  itself  worth 
while.    Motivation  is  not  an  end  in  itself. 

(2)  Geography  work.  This  involves  the  using  and 
making  of  maps  and  models  by  the  pupil  in  order  to 
express  his  knowledge  of  facts  and  to  enable  him 
better  to  visualize  and  appreciate  the  ideas  that  come 
to  him  in  the  more  abstract  form  of  words.  Map  and 
model  making  sounds  rather  formidable  at  first;  and 
undoubtedly  this  will  not  stand  slavish  usage.  How- 
ever, all  pupils  will  have  the  biblical,  or  any  other, 
story  made  more  real  for  them  if  they  have  access  to 
temporary  or  permanent  topographic  relief  models 
which  enable  them  really  to  grasp  necessary  facts. 
It  is  rarely  the  case  that  human  movements  are  not 
made  more  appealing,  particularly  to  young  people, 


142  TJse  of  Motives 

by  a  knowledge  of  the  actual  natural  conditions  in 
which  they  occurred.  All  this  interest  is  enhanced 
and  the  knowledge  made  more  permanent  and  exact 
if  the  pupils  themselves  are  induced  to  make  or  color 
maps,  and  to  model  topography  in  the  sand  or  other 
plastic  material.  In  so  far  as  this  effort  to  represent 
conditions  appeals  to  them  they  will  do  more  work  in 
getting  all  the  facts  and  relations  than  can  be  secured 
from  them  in  any  other  way.  If  the  facts  are  worth 
knowing  at  the  outset,  it  surely  is  worth  while  to 
motivate  the  getting  of  them  so  that  they  may  be 
accurately  and  permanently  held,  —  and  held  in 
relationship  to  other  facts.  The  mechanical  part  of 
map  and  model  making  will  not  appeal  to  all  pupils 
equally. 

(3)  Written  work.  In  this  form  of  expression  scrap- 
books,  note-books,  answers  to  questions,  essays  and 
themes  are  produced.  This  form  is  not  necessarily 
in  itself  appealing  to  all  pupils;  but  when  once  entered 
upon  incites  to  more  thorough  work,  secures  accuracy 
of  expression  and  thus  exactness  of  ideas,  and  tends 
to  unify  the  work  and  give  it  coherence.  It  will 
sometimes  appeal  to  people  who  do  not  care  for  the 
more  concrete  and  mechanical  forms  of  expression 
outlined  in  (l)  and  (2).  It  readily  combines  with  both 
illustrative  work  and  geographic  work. 

(4)  Decorative  work.  This  appeals  to  the  esthetic 
instincts  and  is  supplementary  to  all  the  others. 
There  is  no  question  that  the  beauty  of  form,  of 
design,  and  of  color  by  which  note-books  or  theses 


Forms  of  Expressive  Work  143 

or  maps  or  models  may  be  embellished  is  in  itself  a 
stimulus  to  many  children.  Many  children  may 
be  induced  to  make  something  which  can  be  beauti- 
fied when  the  mere  making  of  the  thing  itself  would 
not  appeal  to  them  at  all.  We  shall  not  waste  any 
time  discussing  whether  it  is  worth  while  ever  to 
do  anything  merely  for  the  beauty  of  it.  We  feel 
sure,  however,  that  when  the  desire  to  do  things 
beautifully  can  be  used  to  secure  the  better  doing 
of  things  in  themselves  worth  while,  we  are  mak- 
ing a  definite  gain  in  invoking  this  motive.  There 
is  furthermore  a  distinct  moral  and  spiritual  gain 
whenever  we  succeed  in  associating  the  idea  of  beauty 
and  the  satisfactions  that  flow  from  it  with  our  religious 
ideas  and  progress.  This  principle  is  at  the  basis  of  all 
ideas  of  the  use  of  music  and  art  in  connection  with 
our  religious  expression.  This  is  peculiarly  true  of 
the  form  of  expression  we  call  worship.  We  need  more 
carefully  to  study  and  use  this  relation  between 
beauty  and  worship. 

(5)  Museum  or  extension  work.  In  a  sense  this 
is  a  means  of  motivating  the  other  forms  of  hand- 
work. It  implies  temporary  exhibits  of  all  hand-work 
done  in  the  Sunday  school,  and  a  permanent  collection 
in  geography  room  and  museum  of  some  of  the  best 
work  done  by  the  young  people  of  different  grades. 
There  is  no  question  that  such  an  exhibit  strongly 
stimulates  the  desire  of  the  children  to  take  part  in 
the  activities  and  to  do  the  work  as  well  as  they 
can.     This  is  an  excellent  device  to  motivate  the 


144  Use  of  Motives 

more  laborious  forms  of  hand-work,  as  map  making 
and  note-book  building.  But  this  is  by  no  means 
all.  The  preparation  of  such  a  temporary  or  perma- 
nent exhibit  gives  opportunity  to  secure  a  large 
amount  of  comparison  and  discrimination  of  values 
so  as  to  be  very  much  worth  having  if  it  had  no  other 
meaning.  Such  collections,  furthermore,  become 
most  valuable  sources  in  time  for  the  aid  of  other 
pupils.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  as  much 
of  the  work  as  possible  in  the  building  and  caring 
for  and  displaying  and  demonstrating  of  such  a 
collection  to  their  parents  and  to  others  should  be 
done  by  the  pupils  themselves.  The  desire  for  social 
approval  becomes  operative  and  an  added  satis- 
faction is  furnished  for  all  the  work. 

4.  Summary:     The  service  that  hand-work  renders. 

It  is  important  to  remind  ourselves,  lest  we  make  a 
fetish  of  it,  of  the  place  and  the  limitation  of  hand- 
work. It  is  in  no  sense  an  end  in  itself.  Its  values 
are  in  the  fact  that  it  leads  to  better  ends.  None 
of  these  products  of  the  hand  is  itself  greatly 
worth  while.  We  could  buy  much  better  things. 
The  prime  value  of  this  form  of  expressive  work  in 
Sunday  schools  is,  first,  that  it  recognizes  and  en- 
courages expression  itself  and  does  not  allow  us  to 
stop  with  feeling  and  knowing;  second,  all  of  it 
reacts  on  personality  in  the  form  of  better  informa- 
tion, in  more  exact  habits,  and  in  skill  in  choice  and 
expression;  and,  third,  the  very  pleasure  we  get  in 
doing  things  drags  us  on,  not  merely  into  doings,  but 


Forms  of  Expressive  Work  145 

into  the  learnings  that  enable  us  to  do  them  better 
than  we  otherwise  would  do.  In  other  words,  any 
motives  to  which  we  can  appeal  in  getting  pupils  to 
do  things  will  multiply  their  desire  to  learn  and  to  be. 
Thus  we  get  our  internal  allies  at  work  on  our  behalf 
in  the  most  profound  possible  way. 


Topics  for  Further  Study  and  Discussion 

1.  Why  expressive  work  is  valuable.  The  end  and 
object  of  it. 

2.  Differing  values  of  different  kinds  of  expressive 
work.    What  determines  the  relative  value? 

3.  Motivation  not  an  end,  but  a  means.  What  is 
the  end? 

4.  Respect  the  difference  of  appeal  which  different 
kinds  of  expression  make  to  different  children,  and  to 
different  ages.    Why? 

5.  The  use  of  the  motive  of  beauty  to  enhance  the 
appeal  to  truth.    The  practical  application  of  it. 

6.  The  social  value  of  hand-work  in  the  Sunday 
school. 

7.  The  home  in  relation  to  the  hand-work  of  the 
Sunday  school. 

Suggestive  Questions 

Why  is  it  that  so  many  of  our  instincts  tend  to 
produce  action?     Significance  of  this  in  education? 


146  Use  of  Motives 

Is  it  your  observation  that  children  get  more  pleasure 
from  learning  or  from  doing  things?  What  is  the 
effect  of  doing  things  (as  making  a  picture  or  a  map) 
on  the  ideas  of  the  child?  What  effect  has  executing 
an  interesting  piece  of  hand-work  on  attention  and 
industry?  What  value  in  personal  education  and  in 
self-respect  has  experience  and  a  consciousness  of 
skill  in  expressing?  Which  types  of  hand-work  are 
more  likely  to  appeal  to  boys?  Which  to  girls?  What 
are  the  practical  values  in  having  a  Sunday-school 
department  build  up  a  temporary  exhibit  of  hand- 
work? 


Some  Practical  Problems 

1.  The  practical  problem  of  motivating  home 
work  on  the  Sunday-school  lessons  by  means  of  hand- 
work. 

2.  Parents  or  teachers  need  to  find  just  what  is 
the  result  of  their  teaching  upon  the  inner  life  of  the 
child.  Can  we  do  so?  Our  limitations;  methods  of 
discovering. 

3.  Is  it  educationally  worth  while  for  the  pupil  to 
have  a  fair  conception  of  the  land  of  Palestine?  Is 
it  your  observation  that  the  average  persons  brought 
up  in  our  Sunday  schools  have  such  a  conception? 
Isn't  it  perfectly  practicable  to  overcome  this  failure 
through  a  little  intelligent  use  of  hand-work  in  the 
early  grades? 


Forms  of  Expressive  Work  147 

Refekences 

Goodrich:  With  Scissors  and  Paste.  A.  Flanagan  Co., 
Chicago.  ^.25 

Heffron:  Lessons  in  Chalk  Modeling.  Educational 
Publishing  Co.,  Chicago.    $1.00 

Littlefield:  Hand-work  in  the  Sunday  Schools.  Sun- 
day School  Times  Co.,  Philadelphia.    $1.00 

Maliby:  Map  Modeling.  A.  Flanagan  Co.,  Chicago. 
.75 


CHAPTER  XI 

FORMS    OF    EXPRESSIVE    WORK:     REPRE- 
SENTATION 

1.     The  essential  nature  of  this  form  of  expression. 

In  hand-work  we  have  the  individual  trying  to 
express  by  material  means  some  idea  or  fact  or  rela- 
tionship which  he  has  discovered.  In  this  second  type 
of  activity,  which  we  have  called  representative,  the 
person  is  endeavoring  to  give  expression  through 
voice  or  bodily  action  to  ideas,  incidents,  personalities, 
relations,  or  principles.  To  do  this  it  requires  such 
a  mastery  of  a  situation  through  knowledge  or  imagi- 
nation that  the  individual  puts  himself  temporarily 
in  the  place  of  the  persons  portrayed  and  tries  to 
present  the  situation  so  that  it  may  seem  real  and 
convincing.  This  is  a  higher  and  more  vital  form  of 
expression  than  any  hand-work  can  ever  become 
because  the  individual  is  himself  both  the  actor  and 
the  material  with  which  the  presentation  is  made. 
It  is  not  so  high,  however,  as  original,  self-determined 
behavior  because  it  is  an  imitation.  And  yet,  because 
imitation  is  always  an  important  element  in  all 
human  education,  this  mode  of  personal  expression 
is  profoundly  important  in  the  development  of  the 
moral  and  religious  attitudes  of  children.     However, 

149 


150  Use  of  Motives 

we  have  never  made  any  systematic  use  of  it  in  our 
Sunday-school  program. 

2.  The  dramatic  and  play  instincts  in  the  child. 
One  cannot  have  anything  to  do  with  children  of 

the  age  of  six  to  twelve  years  and  not  be  impressed  with 
the  part  which  these  impulses  play  in  their  spontane- 
ous life.  Most  children  between  these  ages  give  a 
large  part  of  their  time  to  such  "  make-believe  "  r61es. 
They  play  the  parts  of  parents,  of  soldiers,  of  school- 
teachers, of  Indians,  of  bears,  of  trees,  of  fairies,  and 
of  railroad  trains.  There  is  scarcely  anything  in  the 
whole  realm  of  their  knowledge  that  they  do  not  at 
one  time  or  another  become.  We  have  been  inter- 
ested in  this  fact,  but  we  have  not  consistently  used 
it  for  educative  purposes.  An  impulse  that  fills  such 
a  large  need  in  the  life  of  the  child  and  gives  him  such 
consistent  satisfaction  must  have  a  big  value  to  his 
inner  life.  When  we  come  to  understand  how  to  use 
it  properly  it  will  certainly  help  us  in  molding  per- 
sonality. 

3.  The  qualities  on  which  these  instincts  depend  and 
the  states  to  which  they  minister. 

It  may  help  us  in  our  effort  to  use  this  dramatic 
instinct  to  examine  briefly  the  underlying  states 
which  feed  it.  It  is  clear  in  the  first  place  that  im- 
agination plays  a  big  r61e  here.  In  playing  a  part  the 
child,  unless  the  acting  is  mere  direct  imitation,  is 
reimaging  or  reconstructing  the  person  and  the  situa- 
tion which  he  is  portraying.  It  is  a  matter  of  inter- 
pretation and  appraisal  as  well  as  of  imagination. 


Forms  of  Expressive  Work:   Representation      151 

On  the  other  hand,  in  doing  this  the  child  must  tem- 
porarily submerge  his  own  personality.  This  is 
another  form  which  imagination  takes.  It  gives  the 
child  himself  the  imagined  qualities  of  the  object 
represented.  The  child  can  throw  himself  into  the 
part  without  reserve.  To  do  this  he  must  dispossess 
himself.  Imagination  in  childhood  is  peculiarly  able 
to  do  this.  The  self-consciousness  of  later  years 
tends  to  make  it  impossible  then. 

This  situation  is  full  of  very  attractive  esthetic  and 
emotional  states  also.  It  is  not  rational;  it  depends 
on  the  qualities  out  of  which  sympathy,  wonder, 
faith,  worship  and  devotion  come.  It  is  thus  closely 
allied  with  the  deepest  of  our  religious  and  spiritual 
states.  In  '*  Peter  Pan  "  it  was  disbelief  in  fairies  that 
made  them  impossible.  It  is  this  imagination  and 
its  correlated  group  of  emotional  states  that  make 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  the  real  realm  of  the  child. 
It  is  rarely  quite  real  to  the  normal  adult.  Further- 
more, the  instinct  of  repetition  aids  the  operation  of 
the  dramatic  impulse.  The  child  is  usually  willing 
to  play  over  and  over  the  r61es  in  which  it  has  once 
found  pleasure.  Thus  the  imaginary  character  grows 
and  is  enriched,  and  the  states  at  first  temporarily 
assumed  tend  to  become  permanent  in  the  child.  The 
child  himself  is  being  trained  by  the  expression  and  its 
demands  on  his  internal  qualities.  He  is  also  taking 
on  some  coloring  from  the  object  he  has  been  repre- 
senting.   He  has  had  practise  in  self-effacement. 

If  these  things  are  at  all  true  we  may  hope,  by  some 


162  Use  of  Motives 

stimulus  and  supervision  of  the  dramatic  and  play- 
expressions,  not  merely  to  develop  these  imaginative 
and  emotional  powers  basal  to  spiritually  minded 
personality,  but  also  to  minister  to  the  internal  ideals 
and  standards  that  help  determine  choices.  For 
example,  a  child  could  not  frequently  act  the  r61e  of 
a  "  good  fairy  "  and  not  have  some  of  the  attitudes 
of  his  own  personality  predisposed  thereby  to  choice 
and  action  involving  sympathy.  A  normal  child 
cannot  continually  ^'  make  believe  "  without  having 
some  ability  of  real  belief  come  out  of  it.  He  tends  to 
become  what  he  represents.  It  becomes  necessary 
therefore  not  only  that  the  representing  instinct 
should  be  used,  but  that  it  should  be  properly  directed, 
and  that  the  child's  representative  expressions  should 
be  sound. 

It  is  not  impossible  also,  in  highly  imaginative 
children,  to  overdo  this  kind  of  work.  It  is  possible 
to  get  too  much  of  the  withdrawal  of  the  child's 
personality  to  make  way  for  that  to  be  represented. 
This  is  another  reason  why,  as  in  play,  the  dramatic 
expressions  should  be  wisely  supervised  and  guided. 

4.  The  use  of  this  in  Sunday  school. 

The  teachers  in  English  and  history  and  other 
general  subjects  in  education  are  learning  that  the 
play  and  acting  instincts  can  be  used  in  securing  good 
response  in  these  fields.  Plays,  dramas,  pageants,  and 
the  like  are  devised  to  get  the  pupils  into  the  spirit 
of  literary  or  historic  situations.  Pupils  will  do  much 
more  enthusiastic  work  to  prepare  for  such  presenta- 


Forms  of  Expressive  Work:   Representation      153 

tions  than  it  is  possible  to  get  by  any  other  device. 
There  is  a  growing  conviction  that  something  very 
interesting  may  be  done  for  the  motivation  of  chil- 
dren's study  of  the  Bible  by  this  means.  We  shall 
have  to  admit  that  our  instruction  in  the  Bible  and 
related  subjects  has  been  none  too  good,  and  has 
never  aroused  any  great  interest  or  enthusiasm  among 
children.  We  have  never  given  it  the  full  advantage 
of  its  strongest  appeal. 

If  we  assume  that  the  biblical  facts  are  worth  some- 
thing to  the  child,  that  the  truths  and  persons  and 
relations  and  principles  presented  there  are  true  to 
the  essential  nature  of  life,  it  surely  becomes  important 
that  the  child  should  be  brought  to  assimilate  these 
things  in  a  normal  and  complete  way  as  he  becomes 
able  to  do  so,  rather  than  to  get  them  in  a  half-hearted, 
routine  fashion,  as  is  so  often  the  case.  Only  by  such 
vital  assimilation  can  they  really  minister  to  the 
inner  life  and  thus  come  to  aid  in  our  religious  task 
of  securing  habits  of  right  choice.  It  is  believed  that 
there  is  no  way  in  which  the  biblical  situations  which 
are  suitable  for  the  child  can  be  brought  so  thoroughly 
into  the  reach  of  personality  as  through  such  dramatic 
presentation.  It  is  believed  further  that  there  is  no 
other  device  which  will  send  a  Sunday-school  class  to 
the  sympathetic  study  of  some  episode  in  the  Bible  as 
will  the  task  of  presenting  that  episode  on  some  occa- 
sion, such  as  the  opening  exercises  of  the  Sunday 
school.  The  dramatic  presentation  of  an  episode  Uke 
that  of  the  Parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  or  the  life 


154  Use  of  Motives 

of  Joseph,  will  motivate  enthusiastic  investment  of 
time  and  energy  on  the  part  of  a  group  of  boys.  It 
will  secure  the  study  of  all  the  circumstances  and  of  the 
spirit  of  the  thing  that  nothing  else  can  bring.  If 
these  passages  contain  anything  worth  while  to  the 
boys,  this  kind  of  attitude  makes  it  very  certain  that 
they  will  get  and  assimilate  much  more  of  it  than 
they  will  probably  do  in  any  other  way.  It  is  an 
ideal  method  of  motivating  certain  passages  so  as  to 
make  them  yield  the  maximum  moral  and  religious 
value  to  the  pupils. 

5.  Forms  of  hihlical  representation. 

There  are  several  forms  of  representative  expression 
of  the  moral  and  religious  ideas  from  the  Bible  and 
elsewhere  within  the  reach  of  our  Sunday  schools. 
First,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  this  is  a  form  of 
expression  and  thus  relates  itself  to  the  child's  choices 
and  conduct  which,  as  we  have  said,  have  always  a 
close  relation  to  morals  and  religion.  While  the 
situations  may  not  be  original,  they  nevertheless  re- 
quire choices  on  the  part  of  the  one  expressing  them, 
and  under  circumstances  that  make  for  sound  de- 
cisions. Practise  in  making  right  choices,  which 
one's  nature  approves,  in  imitating  another's  action 
is  helpful  in  securing  the  power  for  oneself.  In  the 
second  place  the  process  itself  is  full  of  the  imagination 
and  sympathetic  emotions  which  are  basal  to  the 
religious  and  spiritual  states.  In  the  third  place,  in 
the  Bible  and  similar  literature  we  are  dealing  with 
material  which  is  peculiarly  rich  in  moral  and  spiritual 


Forms  of  Expressive  Work:   Representation      155 

incentives  and  inspiring  to  right  choice.  For  all  of 
these  reasons  biblical  material  is  well  suited  to  be 
used  by  children  in  these  dramatic  ways.  The 
following  forms  are  suggestive : 

(1)  Storytelling.  This  is  one  of  the  simplest  drama- 
tic uses  of  the  biblical  material,  and  has  come  to 
be  used  in  high  degree  and  with  excellent  method 
and  success  in  the  early  years  of  Sunday  school. 
The  children  themselves  should  learn  to  tell  the 
stories  which  illustrate  the  great  truths  they  can 
appreciate.  These  truths  thus  become  their  own  in 
greater  degree. 

(2)  Recitation.  This  is  also  a  simple  form  of  expres- 
sion which  might  well  be  used  more  than  it  is.  We 
are  all  familiar  with  the  use  of  this  on  such  special 
occasions  as  Children's  Day  and  Rally  Day;  but  this 
does  not  exhaust  the  possibilities.  The  incentive  of 
recitation  in  class  or  before  the  school  may  often 
stimulate  mastery  of  great  hymns,  passages  of  scrip- 
ture, elevating  rituals,  and  the  like.  The  very  act  of 
becoming  responsible  for  the  presentation  of  some  of 
these  great  things  is  in  itself  a  valuable  experience. 
The  satisfaction  of  the  public  appearance  with  its 
sense  of  doing  something  worth  while  will  motivate 
a  large  amount  of  effort  to  get  a  full  mastery  of  the 
matter.  Not  all  individuals,  nor  all  ages,  find  this  a 
stimulus,  however.  For  example,  there  is  a  period 
of  boyhood  in  which  this  would  be  the  greatest  possible 
bore. 

(3)  Pageants.      Young  people    of    all  ages    enjoy 


156  Use  of  Motives 

pageants  and  mass  displays  of  that  kind.  They  have 
been  used  to  great  advantage  in  motivating  historical 
study.  Biblical  and  church  history  are  rich  in  inci- 
dents which  are  most  attractive  and  inspiring  for  this 
purpose.  It  would  require  much  study  and  apprecia- 
tion of  the  essential  conditions  of  the  period  to  do 
such  a  thing  well  and  convincingly.  By  using  this 
method  we  harness  the  satisfactions  of  the  dramatic 
motive  and  public  appearance  to  the  study  of  the 
Bible  times  and  thus  arouse  curiosity  and  give  to  it 
an  immediate  aim.  One  advantage  of  pageantry  is 
that  it  is  so  adaptable  to  all  ages. 

(4)  Plays  and  dramas.  All  that  has  been  said  of 
stories,  recitations,  dialogs,  and  pageants,  may 
be  said  with  even  more  force  of  these  more  exact  and 
formal  efforts  to  represent  the  life  and  truths  of  the 
Bible.  We  return  to  our  illustration  of  the  Parable 
of  the  Good  Samaritan,  given  as  a  ten-minute  opening 
exercise  for  Sunday  school.  For  a  class  of  twelve- 
year-old  boys  this  would  motivate  an  amount  of  study 
that  no  ordinary  teaching  will  do.  The  love  of  the 
dramatic  in  the  child  would  inspire  in  the  making  up  of 
the  dialog  and  the  business;  this  desire  to  dramatize 
and  present  the  story  properly  would  lead  to  a  study 
of  the  parable  and  the  conditions  surrounding  it,  im- 
possible to  secure  in  any  other  way.  During  this 
process  the  spiritual  and  humane  point  of  view  of 
Jesus  in  the  parable  would  be  impressed  in  a  most 
intimate  and  lasting  way,  not  as  a  moral  dragged 
in    by    the    teacher,    but    as    something    absolutely 


Forms  of  Expressive  Work:   Representation    157 

essential  to  the  understanding  and  the  staging  of  the 
incident. 

The  Bible  is  literally  full  of  this  dramatic  matter 
true  to  our  best  appreciations  of  life;  we  are  all  but 
failing  to  bring  it  in  any  vital  way  to  the  real  accep- 
tance of  our  boys  and  girls;  they  have  dramatic  and 
play  instincts  which  will  help  accomplish  what  we 
wish.  Are  we  going  to  use  these  natural  allies  in  the 
child  to  the  best  advantage?  Or  shall  we  allow  them 
to  be  dissipated  on  the  picture  shows? 

6.  Summary  of  the  educational  value  of  the  drama  in 
Sunday-school  work. 

In  the  presenting  of  dramatized  biblical  material 
by  Sunday-school  pupils  there  are  three  educational 
opportunities  to  be  considered:  (1)  The  construction 
of  the  dramas;  (2)  the  preparation  and  presentation 
of  the  dramas;  and  (3),  the  observation  of  the  per- 
formance by  those  who  do  not  participate  actively. 
Even  for  the  last  class,  which  has  least  opportunity 
to  profit  by  it,  the  dramatic  presentation  of  such  inci- 
dents is  more  readily  visualized  and  more  remembered 
than  any  other  form  in  which  it  is  brought  to  their 
attention.  In  other  words  this  which  we  have  found 
peculiarly  valuable  as  an  expressive  device  for  a  few 
becomes  also  a  good  method  of  instruction  for  the 
others. 

Probably  the  work  of  building  the  dialog  and  arrang- 
ing the  business  is  the  most  educative  of  all.  This 
task  requires  the  very  best  study,  appreciation,  and 
insight.    It  ought  to  be  done  by  the  pupils  if  possible. 


158  Use  of  Motives 

The  selection  of  a  suitable  incident,  the  finding  of  the 
essential  spirit  of  it,  the  determination  of  the  method 
of  presenting  it,  the  choice  of  the  right  words  and 
actions  to  bring  out  the  vital  meaning,  are  the  very 
essence  of  good  Bible  study.  A  good  device  is  to 
allow  older  classes  to  develop  plays  suitable  for 
younger  classes  to  present;  though  even  the  younger 
classes  will  surprise  those  who  have  not  tried  it  by 
their  ability  to  do  the  work  necessary  to  stage  for 
themselves  the  more  simple  incidents. 

We  have  already  dwelt  suJB&ciently  upon  the  edu- 
cational value  of  presenting  the  stories  to  the  public. 
It  is  somewhat  of  the  same  nature  as  in  the  building 
of  them,  but  rather  less  original.  It  is  more  spectacu- 
lar and  has  in  consequence  a  stronger  appeal  to  most 
children.  The  presence  of  an  audience  too  has  a 
stimulating  effect  to  most  children.  Much  the  same 
mastery  must  be  had  of  the  essential  meanings  and 
of  the  manner  of  expressing  them  as  in  the  construc- 
tion of  the  story. 

The  structure  and  the  presenting  of  such  work  by 
Sunday-school  classes  will  undoubtedly  be  crude  and 
amateurish.  It  is  necessary  for  teachers  early  to  get 
the  understanding  that  the  prime  purpose  is  not 
artistry  and  a  professional  smoothness  of  acting.  All 
that  is  essential  in  this  respect  is  sufficient  excellence 
and  beauty  to  make  the  children  themselves  feel  that 
they  have  succeeded.  What  we  are  seeking  is  appreci- 
ation, understanding,  acceptance,  and  expression  of 
the  essential  facts,  truths,  points  of  view,  and  values 


Forms  of  Expressive  Work:  Representation      159 

contained  in  the  passage.  The  artistry  is  quite  inci- 
dental if  it  only  be  as  good  as  the  child  can  do. 

7.  Worship  as  an  expressive  activity. 

In  the  strictest  sense  perhaps  worship  is  an  attitude 
of  the  whole  of  the  human  spirit,  rather  than  an 
expressive  activity  in  the  meaning  in  which  we  have 
been  using  the  word.  However,  in  childhood  it 
probably  must  be  considered  an  "  exercise  ''  some- 
what similar  in  its  nature  to  those  discussed  in  this 
chapter.  It  calls  for  much  the  same  internal  qualities 
of  imagination,  wonder,  faith,  and  self-effacement 
that  are  used  and  fed  by  dramatization.  At  first 
the  child's  worship  is  probably  very  much  like  its 
thoughts  of  fairy-land.  At  this  stage  it  is  likely  to 
become  rather  a  matter  of  words  and  routine.  This 
state  should  not  be  allowed  to  become  permanent. 
In  mature  life  the  early  emotions  of  wonder  and  rever- 
ence should  be  enriched  by  knowledge  and  ideas  into 
an  emotional  and  intellectual  companionship  with  the 
Author  of  life. 

In  the  Sunday  school  itself  it  is  pretty  well  agreed 
that  the  great  poetic  and  wonder  passages  of  the 
Bible,  the  great  hymns,  some  of  the  finer  ritualistic 
utterances,  and  the  moving  prayers  of  the  church 
may  well  be  learned  and  uttered  in  much  the  same 
spirit  as  the  dramatizations  are  mastered.  It  is  felt 
that  these  cannot  pass  into  consciousness  without 
leaving  there  something  which  later  will  mean  a 
worshipful  spirit. 

Teachers  and  parents  should  help  children  find 


160  Use  of  Motives 

subjects  for  prayer  suitable  to  their  age  and  stage  of 
development.  Whatever  else  prayer  may  mean,  there 
is  no  question  that  it  acts  in  a  highly  valuable  way 
by  autosuggestion.  In  this  way  praying  is  similar 
to  any  other  expressive  act  in  molding  the  internal 
ideas,  ideals,  and  standards  in  accord  with  it.  The 
whole  matter  of  the  pedagogical  use  of  prayer  and 
the  grading  of  prayer  to  the  actual  needs  of  the  child 
must  have  more  careful  study  than  it  has  yet  received. 

Topics  for  Further  Study  and  Discussion 

1.  The  place  of  imagination  in  representative  ex- 
pression. The  place  of  imagination  in  faith  and  wor- 
ship. The  possible  relation  of  dramatic  exercises  to 
faith  and  worship. 

2.  Imitation  as  a  factor  in  the  education  of  youth. 
Its  possibilities  in  morals  and  religion.  Some  corol- 
laries of  these  facts. 

3.  Is  personality  really  influenced  by  the  imaginary 
r61es  which  we  assume  as  children  in  our  reading  and 
acting?    Your  own  evidences. 

4.  Having  the  children  build  up  dialogs  of  the  Bible 
stories  as  a  teaching  exercise.  Methods;  problems; 
values. 

5.  Inducing  the  child  to  tell  the  stories  versus 
repeated  telling  of  them  by  the  teacher. 

Suggestive  Questions 

What  observed  proofs  can  you  give  that  love  of 
imaginary  and  dramatic  situations  furnish  motives 


Forms  of  Expressive  Work:   Representation    161 

for  childish  activities?  Why  is  the  realm  of  spirit,  — 
the  "  Kingdom  of  Heaven/'  —  more  real  to  the 
normal  child  than  to  the  normal  adult?  Is  there  any 
practical  value  in  this?  Do  you  recall  that  you  placed 
yourself,  in  your  early  reading,  as  the  hero  or  heroine 
of  the  stories  you  read  or  plays  you  saw?  Do  you 
think  that  fact  makes  what  one  reads  of  more  influ- 
ence in  molding  character?  What  is  the  fundamental 
meaning  of  the  fact  that  all  grades  of  people,  from 
criminals  to  people  of  normal  morals,  choose  the  hero 
and  condemn  the  villain  in  the  melodrama?  What  are 
the  educational  corollaries  of  this?  Why  should  the 
dramatic  representations  not  be  allowed  to  be  an 
end  in  themselves? 

Some  Practical  Problems 

1.  The  practical  need  of  supervised  reading  and 
dramatics,  in  the  light  of  the  childish  tendency  to 
adopt  the  r61es  that  appeal  to  it.  How  to  use  these 
facts  to  best  advantage  in  giving  the  child  sound 
standards. 

2.  How  may  we  strengthen  and  make  permanent 
the  states  of  mind  and  choices  that  a  child  adopts  as 
his  own  in  his  reading  or  the  representation  of  a  drama? 
How  help  the  child  carry  them  into  practise?  The 
necessary  cooperation  of  teachers  and  parents. 

3.  The  practical  problem  of  making  most  real  and 
appealing  to  the  child  the  spirit  of  the  Bible  stories. 
In  order  to  do  this  what  must  be  the  teacher's  attitude 
toward  the  Bible?    Toward  the  child? 


162  Use  of  Motives 

References 

Athearn:    The   Church   School,  pp.    193-205.     The 

Pilgrim  Press,  Boston.     $1.00 
Bryaiit:    How  to  Tell  Stories  to  Children.     Houghton 

Mifflin  Co.,  Boston.    $1.00 
Chamherlin  and  Kern:     Child  Religion  in  Song  and 

Story:  University  of  Chicago  Press.    $1.25 
Eaton:    Dramatic  Studies  of  the  Bible.    The  Pilgrim 

Press,  Boston.     .75 
Hartshorne:    Worship  in  the  Sunday  School. 
Johnston  and  Barm:     A  Book  of  Plays  for  Little 

Actors.    American  Book  Co.,  N.  Y.    .30 
St.  John:    Stories  and  Story  Telling.     The  Pilgrim 

Press,     Boston.     .50. 


CHAPTER  XII 

FORMS    OF    EXPRESSION:     ORIGINAL 
PERSONAL  BEHAVIOR 

1.  Introduction. 

After  all  is  said  about  impression,  instruction, 
hand-work,  and  dramatization  of  fine  incidents  as 
means  to  help  secure  right  character  and  habits  of 
right  choice,  none  of  these  compare  with  the  making 
of  actual,  original,  and  suitable  choices  and  responses 
in  the  face  of  the  actual  situations  which  confront 
our  own  lives.  These  other  things  are  aids  to  study 
and  to  conduct,  but  life  is  the  real  clinic  of  moral  and 
religious  education.  It  is  here  that  habits  of  right 
choice  and  actions  are  formed.  Our  churches  and 
Sunday  schools  have  not  properly  realized  that  their 
work  for  morals  and  religion  is  very  likely  to  be  lost 
unless  they  can  find  a  way  to  help  the  training  to 
actual  expression  in  the  home,  on  the  street,  in  the 
school,  at  play,  at  work,  and  in  private.  We  ought,  if 
possible,  in  Sunday  school  to  find  or  arouse  motives 
that  will  make  right  choices  surer,  not  merely  in 
Sunday  school  but  outside.  We  must,  furthermore, 
find  means  of  coordinating  our  efforts  with  those  of 
parents,  school  teachers,  boys*  secretaries,  juvenile 
courts,  and  all  grades  of  social  workers  with  children. 

163 


164  Use  of  Motives 

The  steps  in  this  coordination  must  be  experimental 
and  practical. 

2.  Furnishing  motives  for  conduct,  or  practise  in 
righteousness. 

This  is  of  course  at  the  very  crown  of  the  expressive 
work  of  the  Sunday  school,  of  which  hand-work  and 
dramatization  are  only  beginnings.  It  is,  however, 
in  practise,  as  we  have  repeatedly  suggested,  the 
weakest  point  of  the  whole  Sunday-school  effort; 
and  wj  must  regard  our  work  as  a  failure  in  so  far 
as  we  fail  to  get  our  pupils  to  carry  into  the  practise 
of  individual  and  social  life  the  impressions  they 
receive.  It  is  not  enough  to  teach  righteousness  in 
our  schools,  —  even  though  we  have  all  our  pupils 
deeply  enthusiastic  in  the  study  of  all  the  biblical 
examples  of  honesty,  truthfulness,  purity,  obedience, 
etc.,  —  and  then  leave  the  putting  of  these  ideals  into 
practise  to  become  a  sort  of  haphazard  by-product  of 
this  teaching  modified  by  the  accidents  of  life.  Unless 
the  Sunday  school  succeeds  in  getting  the  boy  to 
connect  the  teachings  of  honesty  on  Sunday  with  the 
propriety  of  being  honest  in  the  ball  game  on  Monday 
he  is  really  worse  off  than  if  he  had  not  been  taught. 
Unless  he  is  a  more  obedient  and  considerate  boy 
in  the  home,  our  teaching  about  obedience  is  a 
failure. 

We  must  therefore  make  a  closer  connection  be- 
tween our  moral  teaching  and  the  practical  behavior 
in  the  home,  at  school,  in  the  games,  and  on  the 
street.    We  must  motivate  in  some  strong  way  this 


Forms  of  Expression:   Personal  Behavior      165 

practical  life  of  the  pupil.  The  every-day,  expressive 
life  of  the  boy  is  much  more  attractive  to  him  than 
the  theoretical  teachings.  It  is  more  genuine  and  is 
a  better  test  of  the  nature  of  personality.  It  is  more 
educative.    How  can  we  motivate  it? 

The  writer  has  no  complete  answer  to  this  question. 
This  is  the  region  of  our  most  promising  future  in- 
vestigation. We  can  only  illustrate  the  possibiUties 
here.  The  problem  briefly  stated  is  this:  We  want 
to  secure  right  knowledge,  right  desires,  and  right 
conduct  both  in  the  Sunday  school  and  in  life;  we 
have  the  children  only  a  few  minutes  in  Sunday  school. 
Our  first  task  is  to  motivate  right  conduct  within  the 
Sunday  school;  and  our  second  to  devise  ways  to 
enlarge  these  motives  to  life  outside.  For  this  reason 
the  appeal  to  motives  must  be  natural  and  ring 
absolutely  true  to  real  life.  If  it  does  not  it  will  be 
left  behind  as  the  pupils  pass  out  through  the  doors, 
and  rightly.  Our  most  natural  and  easy  step  is  to 
the  life  in  the  home.  We  must  at  every  point  touch 
hands  with  the  parents.  They  must  help  us  to  secure 
the  translation  of  instruction  into  life. 

3.  An  illustration:  giving. 

Take,  for  example,  the  matter  of  giving,  as  a  means 
of  expression  of  interest,  and  also  as  a  means  of  edu- 
cation of  attitudes  and  habits  of  action.  It  is  pretty 
safe  to  say  that  the  usual  method  of  Sunday-school 
giving,  which  it  is  unnecessary  to  describe  here,  is 
almost  destitute  of  educative  (or  human)  value. 
Could  not  a  great  increase  in  habits  of  generosity 


166  Use  of  Motives 

and  of  sympathetic  action  be  made  if  the  church 
would  include  in  its  own  budget  the  expenses  of  the 
Sunday  school;  eliminate  the  process  of  giving  just 
for  the  sake  of  having  money  in  the  treasury;  and 
allow  the  Sunday  school,  as  a  whole  or  through  its 
different  classes,  to  work  up  interest  in  and  devote 
their  offerings  to  definite,  fine,  human  purposes?  How 
much  of  interest  in  humanity,  open-heartedness,  sym- 
pathy, and  self-sacrifice  could  be  developed  about  the 
act  of  giving  when  motivated  by  acute  personal  inter- 
est in  the  object  of  the  giving!  Great  human  causes 
could  thus  be  brought,  week  after  week,  to  the 
attention  of  the  children.  By  grading  these  appeals 
very  carefully  to  the  children's  ability  to  respond  with 
a  whole  heart,  we  could  secure  in  them  habits  of 
giving  heartily  and  wisely  to  the  needs  of  the  race. 
Missions,  local  church  enterprises,  organized  local 
charities,  fresh-air  funds,  and  scores  of  religious 
and  humanitarian  activities  could  be  brought  to  their 
earnest  attention  through  the  motive  of  the  query  in 
their  own  minds:  "What  shall  we  vote  to  help 
with  our  money  next  week?  "  Similarly,  in  individual 
classes,  it  would  be  possible  to  give  something  of  the 
Sunday-school  atmosphere  to  daily  life  by  a  search 
for  genuine  needs  which  the  members  of  the  class 
might  undertake  to  help  in  some  discriminating  way. 

4.  The  task. 

Is  it  not  possible,  in  a  similar  way,  to  take  certain 
other  motives  and  desires  and  interests  which  our 
children  have,  and  in  our  Sunday-school  classes  de- 


Forms  of  Expression:  Personal  Behavior      16? 

vise  ways  whereby  these  desires  may  be  brought  to 
express  themselves  rightly  out  in  the  world  where  the 
children  live?  Or  we  may  approach  it  from  the  other 
side  and  decide  upon  certain  types  and  habits  of 
conduct  which  the  children  ought  to  practise,  and 
then  see  whether  we  cannot  discover  some  internal 
motives  which,  by  a  little  encouragement  and  guid- 
ance, will  impel  the  child  to  do  the  kinds  of  things 
that  will  develop  these  habits. 

Most  of  us  realize  that  it  is  much  more  easy  to 
impart  information  than  it  is  to  get  right  conduct, 
which  is  to  get  instruction  converted  into  conduct. 
Even  in  those  Sunday  schools  in  which  most  has  been 
done  to  grade  the  intellectual  and  emotional  instruc- 
tion to  the  needs  and  capabilities  of  the  child,  little 
has  been  done  in  a  conscious  way  to  connect  the 
emotional  and  intellectual  states  with  the  practical 
choices  and  activities  of  life.  After  teaching  the 
children,  we  have  left  them  pretty  much  to  the 
hazard  of  chance  events  to  get  practise  in  carrying 
out  the  things  we  have  taught.  This  is  not  fair  to  the 
child.  His  inexperience  is  not  equal  to  the  situation. 
It  makes  it  too  easy  for  him  to  drop  into  the  bad 
habit  of  divorcing  in  his  own  mind  the  teaching  of  the 
school  and  the  acts  of  his  life;  of  disjoining  his  inter- 
nal standards  and  states  from  his  conduct.  This  is 
always  destructive  of  personality. 

As  religious  teachers,  then,  we  must  do  three 
things:  (1)  we  must  get  right  convictions  and  ideas 
of  life  in  the  minds  of  the  children,  through  the  use 


168  Use  of  Motives 

of  the  finer  native  motives  and  impulses;  (2)  we  must, 
by  a  similar  use  of  the  natural  motives  and  tendencies, 
secure  actual  practise  in  right  living;  and  (3)  we 
must  succeed  in  connecting  the  practise  with  the 
teaching,  so  that  personality  will  not  only  have  both 
sound  convictions  and  right  habits,  but  a  perfectly 
open  roadway  between.  Every  agency  interested  in 
the  child  must  work  together  if  this  is  to  be  done. 

5.  The  possibilities. 

In  this  most  vital  of  all  tasks  of  securing  right 
conduct  controlled  from  within  by  right  convictions, 
we  need  the  help  of  every  native  childish  motive  that 
can  be  made  to  contribute  to  the  result.  What  one 
does  is  more  educative  than  what  one  is  taught; 
what  one  does,  impelled  by  one's  own  interests  and 
by  the  satisfaction  one  gets  in  the  doing,  is  more 
educative  than  things  done  without  these  accompani- 
ments. Just  as  there  are  personal  desires  making  the 
process  of  learning  more  meaningful,  so  there  are  de- 
sires leading  to  personal  satisfactions  that  make  conduct 
more  meaningful.  By  appealing  to  these  it  is  possible 
not  only  to  strengthen  the  child  against  the  difficult 
chances  of  his  life,  but  to  make  these  life  experiences 
have  a  fuller  educational  value  for  still  later  times. 
This  field  of  Sunday-school  pedagogy  is  almost  virgin, 
but  it  is  the  belief  of  the  writer  that  it  has  great 
possibilities.  This  point  of  attack  has  demonstrated 
its  value  in  all  secular  education.  It  is  proposed  here 
to  make  life  the  clinic  of  the  Sunday  school,  in  some- 
what the  same  way  that  the  hospital  has  been  con- 


Forms  of  Expression:  Personal  Behavior      169 

nected  with  the  medical  school;    that  the  shop  and 
laboratory  have  been  added  to  the  classroom. 

6.  Some  dangers. 

A  little  thought  makes  it  quite  clear  that  there  are 
some  dangerous  things  to  be  avoided  here.  The 
motives  appealed  to  and  the  stimuli  applied  must  be 
chosen  with  keen  insight  into  the  stage  of  development 
of  the  child.  So,  also,  must  the  practical  expression 
in  life  be  on  the  grade  of  his  development.  If  these 
things  are  too  mature  and  advanced  it  is  quite  possible 
to  produce  a  state  of  pretense  and  hypocrisy,  far 
removed  from  what  we  desire.  If  the  appeal  is  to 
outgrown  motives  we  are  liable  to  another  form  of 
failure  scarcely  less  fatal. 

7.  Some  methods. 

In  the  light  of  these  suggestions  our  specific  tasks 
are  these:  (1)  to  find  the  childish  impulses  and  desires 
that  lead  the  child  most  surely  toward  right  expres- 
sion; (2)  to  find  ways  in  the  Sunday  school  to  arouse 
and  increase  the  child's  consciousness  of,  and  satis- 
faction in,  those  impulses  which  are  most  valuable 
in  life,  and  to  relate  these  desires  to  the  things  he  is 
learning  in  the  school  and  doing  in  his  home;  (3) 
to  find  special  forms  of  personal  and  collective  expres- 
sion suitable  to  the  development  of  the  child,  at  once 
worthy  and  liable  to  give  him  satisfaction  in  the  doing 
rather  than  in  the  mere  reputation  of  having  done 
them;  and  (4)  to  find  a  means  of  enabling  the  teacher 
and  pupil  to  consider  together  the  degree  to  which 
the   particular  effort   has  succeeded  or   failed,  and 


170  Use  of  Motives 

thus  strengthen  the  feehng  of  responsibihty  for  the 
result,  and  the  connection  of  cause  and  effect. 

A  few  illustrations  of  what  is  possible  are  suggested 
below.  It  must  be  recalled  that  these  proposals  are 
only  suggestive.  This  is  a  realm  for  scientific  edu- 
cational experimentation  rather  than  for  emphatic 
or  dogmatic  statement  of  conclusions  at  present. 
It  is  the  purpose  of  this  book  to  arouse  teachers  and 
parents  to  thoughtfulness  and  to  experimentation 
upon  this  subject  rather  than  to  claim  that  proper 
methods  are  certainly  known. 

8.  Motivation  of  right  conduct  through  sympathy^ 
a  desire  to  serve,  and  kindred  qualities  coupled  with 
desire  for  approval. 

There  is  no  question  that  the  young  child  has  these 
qualities  nor  that  they  make  it  possible  for  him  to  get 
pleasure  and  satisfaction  out  of  doing  things  which 
ordinarily,  but  for  them,  he  would  be  quite  unwilling 
to  do.  They  furnish  a  powerful  means  of  checking 
or  inhibiting  selfish  actions,  and  thus  of  opening 
the  consciousness  to  the  satisfactions  of  unselfishness. 
These  are  qualities  which  may  be  safely  strengthened 
and  increased.  They  need  to  become  habitual  until 
they  can  safely  stand  even  without  the  gratification 
of  external  approval.  These  sympathetic  motives  are 
in  some  danger  of  dissipation  and  decay  in  the  active 
relations  of  life.  Teaching  about  sympathy  and  social 
service  does  not  meet  the  need.  Citing  instances 
calculated  to  arouse  it,  if  not  followed  by  actual 
appropriate  expression,  is  liable  to  develop  the  feehng 


Forms  of  Expression:   Personal  Behavior       171 

that  sympathy  is  a  mere  emotion.  What  we  want  is 
to  follow  instruction  with  a  clear,  definite  clinic  of 
worthy,  useful,  satisfaction-giving,  sympathetic  be- 
havior, with  chance  to  repeat  it  over  and  over,  in 
connections  that  are  interesting  and  do  not  present 
too  many  nor  too  strong  other  native  tendencies  that 
would  work  in  the  opposite  direction.  It  would  not, 
for  example,  be  judicious  to  make  a  twelve-year-old 
boy  choose  between  what  we  are  speaking  of  and  his 
game  of  ball.  It  is  not  necessary  to  invite  certain 
defeat  at  the  outset.  Some  day,  if  matters  have  been 
properly  worked,  we  may  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing 
him  drop  out  of  a  game,  of  his  own  accord,  to  gratify 
a  higher  impulse. 

The  necessary  steps  would  be  something  like  these : 

(1)  the  teacher  would  portray  to  the  individual  pupil, 
or  to  the  class  if  it  is  to  be  made  a  class  activity,  some 
instance  of  human  need  or  limitation  of  a  kind  to 
appeal  to  the  stage  of  development  of  the  pupils; 

(2)  he  should  indicate,  or  have  the  class  decide,  what 
can  be  done  for  relief,  being  sure  that  it  is  not  beyond 
their  capacity  either  for  assimilating  or  doing;  (3) 
he  should  get  definite  responsibility  located  on  each 
pupil  for  a  definite  part  of  the  service;  (4)  he  should 
see  that  the  report  of  the  work  of  each  pupil  comes, 
without  exaggeration,  clearly  before  the  class  and 
before  the  parent  or  some  one  whose  opinion  the  pupil 
prizes;  (5)  if  possible  there  should  also  be  a  report  to 
the  child  of  some  good  and  happiness  that  has  come 
to  another  through  his  work. 


172  Use  of  Motives 

The  writer  believes  that  the  moral  effect  of  this 
kind  of  thing  is  strengthened  in  the  child  if  occasion 
should  offer  that  the  pupil,  or  some  one  in  whom  he  is 
interested,  should  become  the  object  of  similar  con- 
sideration. This  makes  him  realize  how  the  other 
person  feels. 

9.  Use  of  the  quality  of  chivalry  in  motivating 
conduct. 

This  motive  is  one  of  some  strength  fairly  early  in 
the  life  of  the  boy.  It  is  a  mixture  of  growing  con- 
sideration for  others,  self-respect,  and  desire  for  the 
respect  of  others.  It  rises  in  normal  boys  of  twelve 
to  sixteen  promptly,  on  proper  stimulation.  Appeals 
to  this  impulse  should  lead  to  actual  practise  in 
courtesy  to  the  aged  and  to  women;  increased  con- 
sideration to  mother  and  sisters  or  other  women 
members  of  the  home;  the  espousing  of  the  cause  of 
the  weak  rather  than  the  strong;  self-control  in  the 
face  of  temptation  to  do  things  that  would  forfeit 
one's  own  respect.  The  courteous  street  and  home 
behavior  and  amenities  belong  here  in  part.  Coupled 
with  the  love  of  the  other  sex,  which  is  liable  to  play 
some  part  in  the  emotional  life  of  adolescent  children, 
this  quality  of  chivalry  can  easily  be  used  in  estab- 
lishing and  strengthening  standards  and  habits  of 
personal  purity.  There  is  no  question  that  the 
Sunday  schools  have  some  duty  in  regard  to  this 
momentous  human  problem,  which  educators  are 
quite  generally  coming  to  consider  as  in  large  part  an 
educational  one. 


Forms  of  Expression:   Personal  Behavior      173 

10.  Appeal  to  the  spirit  of  tractahility  or  obedience 
to  authority. 

Assuming  that  there  are  relations  of  reasonably- 
cordial  appreciation  between  teacher  and  pupil 
(and  certainly  moral  and  religious  education  is 
scarcely  thinkable  without),  the  teacher  can  count 
upon  a  certain  amount  of  this  motive  in  the  average 
child,  and  use  it  to  secure  responses  and  practises 
which  would  not  in  themselves  appeal  strongly  to 
children.  It  is  best  not  to  use  this  motive,  standing 
alone,  too  often  nor  too  strongly,  nor  even  in- 
discriminatingly;  but  it  supports  and  supplements 
other  appeals.  The  sane  use  of  it  leads  toward  a  law- 
abiding  attitude  later.  Supported  in  its  turn  by  the 
desire  for  approval,  and  by  the  impulse  of  imitation, 
and  that  of  hero-worship,  it  often  enables  the  teacher 
to  secure  actions  and  attitudes  and  habits  of  the 
utmost  educative  value.  There  is  scarcely  an  activity 
or  relation  in  all  the  student's  life  which  cannot  be 
included  in  the  definite  program  of  moral  practises 
by  the  help  of  these  qualities:  general  behavior 
at  home,  at  school  and  on  the  street  may  be  influenced ; 
relations  to  and  treatment  of  companions  in  work 
and  in  sports;  honesty  and  true  sportsmanship  in 
games;  keeping  the  spirit  of  the  Sabbath;  obedience 
to  any  of  the  divine  rules  of  life;  personal  habits  in 
relation  to  many  types  of  temptation,  all  these 
may  very  well  become,  consciously,  fields  in  which 
the  pupil  may  be  induced  to  try  to  put  into  practise 
the  teachings  of  the  classroom.     The  desire  to  obey 


174  Use  of  Motives 

and  please  a  teacher  in  whom  the  pupil  has  confidence 
will  often  help  secure  right  choices  from  the  pupil. 

In  conclusion  the  writer  is  convinced  that  the 
teacher  can  get  closer  to  pupils  and  make  his  personal 
character  and  influence  count  more  with  them  through 
this  mutual  joining  of  their  resources  in  the  active 
expression  of  life  than  is  possible  in  the  ordinary  class- 
room instruction.  It  is  in  working  out  the  program  of 
moral  activity  that  the  teacher  will  best  learn  the 
real  nature  of  the  pupils  in  his  charge,  and  impart  to 
them  whatever  inspiration  his  character  holds.  In 
other  words  it  is  in  expression  rather  than  in  instruc- 
tion that  the  motives  of  obedience,  imitation,  and 
hero-worship  take  the  qualities  of  the  teacher  and 
raise  them  to  the  n'^  power  in  influencing  life. 

11.  Motivation  of  life  in  the  home. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  fact  that  the 
translation  of  teaching  into  action  demands  an  alliance 
between  all  the  friends  of  the  child.  The  work  of  the 
Sunday-school  teacher  must  be  consciously  articulated 
with  all  the  agencies  that  touch  the  child.  For  certain 
reasons,  however,  well  realized  by  most  teachers,  it  is 
peculiarly  essential  that  the  teachers  and  the  parents 
be  working  in  harmony  for  the  child.  Aside  from  the 
profound  importance  of  the  early  homelife  on  the  char- 
acter of  the  child,  the  home  is  on  the  whole  the 
most  sympathetic  and  easily  accessible  to  the  teacher 
of  all  the  realms  of  childish  activity.  There  ought  to 
be  a  specially  close  understanding  between  the 
Sunday-school  teachers  and  the  parents  as  to  what 


Forms  of  Expression:   Personal  Behavior      175 

should  be  sought  for  in  the  way  of  internal  qualities, 
and  what  methods  are  most  likely  to  secure  them. 
The  beginnings  of  all  the  moral  and  religious  qualities 
should  come  of  course  in  the  home;  but  may  we  not 
say  that  it  is  the  peculiar  duty  of  the  home  to  secure 
attitudes  of  obedience,  cheerfulness,  helpfulness, 
cooperative  sharing  of  life  and  its  obligations,  industry, 
honesty,  and  the  like? 

It  is  by  no  means  the  province  of  this  book  to  show 
the  steps  by  which  all  these  Christian  graces  shall  be 
made  habitual.  It  is  the  purpose  rather  to  suggest 
principles  that  must  be  applied  and  to  give  illustra- 
tions which  will  enable  the  teacher  and  parent  to 
study  the  particular  cases  appreciatively,  and  make 
their  own  selection  of  steps.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the 
question  of  obedience  is  probably  settled  favorably 
or  unfavorably  in  the  case  of  most  children  before 
the  Sunday-school  teacher  has  much  to  do  with  the 
child.  Nevertheless  the  Sunday  school  and  the 
minister  are  in  a  position  to  bring  to  mothers  and 
fathers  in  the  home  much  that  will  tend  to  overcome 
the  rough  and  ready  disposition  to  control  children 
by  caprice  and  impulse.  Indeed  parents  need  as 
much  help  as  the  children. 

Attitudes  of  disobedience  can  be  broken  up;  but 
it  is  much  better  and  easier  to  form  the  attitude  of 
obedience  at  the  beginning.  This  does  not  at  all 
mean  that  the  child  is  merely  to  be  forced  in  the 
beginning  to  do  what  another  person  chooses.  He 
must  be  the  one  that  chooses  to  obey.     To  teach 


176  Use  of  Motives 

obedience  is  not  to  talk  about  obedience;  it  is  to 
place  the  child  in  situations  that  call  for  obedience, 
under  circumstances  at  first  where  obedience  will  be 
relatively  easy;  it  is  to  secure  first  acts  of  obedience 
in  directions  toward  which  the  impulses  of  the  child 
naturally  lead;  it  means  that  the  child  should  get 
the  rewards  in  the  satisfaction  of  approval  and  sym- 
pathy and  fellowship  that  follow.  It  implies  confi- 
dence and  ground  for  confidence  in  the  parent.  It 
means  no  vacillation  in  the  parent.  It  means  that 
always  without  exception  the  parent's  requests  or 
commands  shall  be  supreme.  This  makes  necessary 
that  commands  shall  always  be  just  and  right;  that 
the  withdrawal  of  favor  shall  always  follow  dis- 
obedience; that  there  shall  never  be  more  satisfaction 
to  the  child  in  disobeying  than  in  obeying.  If  the 
demand  is  for  something  really  difficult  for  the  child, 
it  should  be  lightened  and  motivated  by  satisfactions 
which  will  make  it  easier  to  do  than  not  to  do.  These 
satisfactions  and  dissatisfactions  should  not  be 
artificial,  but  should  be  natural  to  the  relations  of 
parent  and  child  and  to  the  particular  problem  at 
hand. 

There  is  no  gain  in  invoking  the  instincts  of  re- 
bellion and  self-will,  and  then  undertaking  to  "  break  " 
these  by  force.  A  complete  attitude  of  obedience  in 
the  home  and  elsewhere  may  be  secured  by  making 
obedience  easy  and  pleasant  until  the  impulse  is 
strong  and  then  gradually  extending  it  to  more  diffi- 
cult things. 


Forms  of  Expression:   Personal  Behavior      177 

One  other  illustration:  the  attitude  of  helpfulness 
and  cooperation.  We  may  admit  that  the  impulses 
leading  in  this  direction  are  not  strong  in  the  child 
at  the  outset;  that  the  tasks  it  can  perform  are  not 
particularly  interesting  to  it;  that  it  very  perversely 
prefers  to  help  in  tasks  that  it  cannot  do;  that  its 
play  is  much  more  appealing  to  it.  And  yet  any 
normal  child  may  be  brought  without  great  difficulty 
to  do  his  part  in  the  home  duties  promptly,  cheerfully, 
and  even  enthusiastically,  if  the  parents  are  really 
concerned  to  have  it  so.  The  value  of  such  training 
to  the  child  is  inestimable. 

How  is  this  to  be  done?  We  must  again  assume 
that  the  life  and  attitude  of  the  parents  are  such  that 
there  is  on  the  part  of  the  child  confidence  and  fond- 
ness, some  desire  to  have  their  approval,  some  distress 
at  lack  of  companionship  and  sympathy.  If  these  do 
not  exist  there  is  something  radically  wrong  with  the 
parents.  The  parents  must  assume  the  social  atti- 
tude, —  the  democratic  sharing  of  life,  a  competition 
of  unselfishness  toward  one  another.  The  child  must 
have  the  full  opportunity  to  become  one  of  this 
group;  must  share  its  joys  if  he  tries  to  do  so,  must 
be  deprived  of  its  satisfactions  if  he  does  not.  He 
must  be  held  to  the  laws  of  the  group  and  not  be 
allowed  to  gratify  selfish  impulses  at  its  expense.  He 
must  grow  to  feel  that  the  labors  and  difficulties  and 
adversities  are  shared  in  order  that  the  gains  and 
joys  and  recreations  and  comforts  may  be  shared. 
It  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  real  parents  will 


178  Use  of  Motives 

see  to  it  that  the  child's  satisfactions  are  artificially 
sure  and  artificially  rich  without  making  them  un- 
related to  the  pleasures  of  the  group,  or  allowing 
them  to  minister  to  an  attitude  of  selfishness  on  the 
part  of  the  child. 

In  a  very  similar  way  parents  may  secure,  and  our 
religious  workers  may  help  them  to  secure,  ideas  and 
habits  of  honesty,  promptness,  duty,  virtue,  truth- 
fulness, and  indeed  anything  else  that  they  may 
really  desire  in  the  character  of  the  child,  not  through 
preaching,  but  through  the  proper  motivation  of 
choices  in  terms  of  the  natural  instinctive  endowments 
of  the  child.  The  common  principle  in  all  of  these 
enterprises  is  that  at  the  beginning  the  task  shall 
seem  as  easy  to  the  child  as  possible,  shall  always  be 
rewarded  by  satisfactions  sufficient  to  enlist  the  desires 
in  its  behalf,  and  shall  progress  into  a  habit  and  atti- 
tude of  personality. 

12.  A  suggested  program  of  graded  social  expression. 

It  is  intended  that  what  follows  shall  be  only  sug- 
gestive. Churches  and  teachers  must  work  out  their 
own  programs  in  the  light  of  all  existing  conditions. 
We  may  include  under  this  head  all  activities  that  look 
toward  other  individuals.  The  service  may  take  the 
form  of  gifts  of  money  or  materials  or  of  personal 
service.  It  may  be  rendered  to  individuals  or  to 
causes.  It  may  be  rendered  by  individuals  or  by  a 
class  acting  together  or  by  a  whole  school.  It  may 
be  practised  daily  and  weekly  as  a  regular  part  of  the 
work  or  may  in  addition  be  concentrated  upon  special 


Forms  of  Expression:   Personal  Behavior      179 

occasions,  as  Easter,  Children's  Day,  Thanksgiving, 
and  Christmas.  These  latter  should  not  be  neglected, 
but  it  is  not  wise  to  teach  children  that  it  is  right  to 
reserve  their  social  services  for  these  special  times. 
In  all  this  work  the  teacher  should  not  forget  for  a 
moment  that  we  are  seeking  to  develop  a  genuine  and 
lasting  internal  sympathy  and  generosity  of  spirit, 
and  that  this  is  the  legitimate  outcome  of  sympathetic 
action  followed  by  the  satisfaction  that  comes  from 
the  happiness  of  others.  All  this  kind  of  expression 
must  be  closely  graded  to  the  stage  of  development 
of  the  child.  We  spoil  it  all  if  we  demand  the  im- 
possible. The  field  of  social  expression  for  the  child 
includes  the  home  first  of  all,  the  class  members,  the 
home  Sunday  school  and  church,  the  local  com- 
munity and  its  special  social  enterprises,  and  the 
world  needs  and  movements.  Clearly  the  first  steps 
must  be  very  close  and  concrete  and  personal  to  the 
child.  Later  in  youth  the  interests  broaden  and  may 
become  more  abstract  and  idealistic.  Some  such 
program  as  this  is  necessary  in  order  to  carry  our 
teachings  into  choice  and  expression. 

(l)  Beginners'  Department  (Kindergarten  grades: 
years  four  to  five). 

(a)  The  general  field  of  expression:  the  home  and 
the  class;  for  children  of  the  same  age;  concrete  and 
personal. 

(6)  The  native  impulses  to  be  utilized  for  motivation 
of  expression:  sympathy,  kindliness,  gratitude,  obedi- 
ence, imitation,  desire  to  be  active,  desire  to  please. 


180  Use  of  Motives 

(c)  Type  of  instruction :  about  child  life,  local  and 
distant;  about  the  home  and  parents,  and  the  com- 
forts and  advantages  of  having  them;  the  child's 
power  to  add  to  the  happiness  of  the  parents;  largely 
by  means  of  pictures  and  stories. 

(d)  Special  forms  of  expressive  service:  thought- 
fulness  and  obedience  to  parents  in  the  home;  con- 
sideration for  other  pupils  in  the  class ;  gifts  of  pictures 
and  toys,  or  picture  books  to  individual  children  who 
lack  them,  or  to  children's  homes  or  hospitals  and 
the  like;  kindness  to  all. 

(2)  Primary  Department  {GrBides  one  to  three;  years 
six  to  eight). 

(a)  The  general  field  of  expression:  the  home,  the 
class,  the  Sunday  school,  the  school  relations;  for 
children  and  helpless  people  generally.  Still  needs  to 
be  concrete  and  personal  rather  than  abstract  and 
general. 

(6)  The  native  impulses  to  be  utilized:  imitation; 
impulse  to  be  doing  things;  play;  obedience,  repeti- 
tion; sympathy  for  distress  in  animals  and  people; 
spirit  of  wonder. 

(c)  The  type  of  instruction :  continuation  of  stories 
about  children  of  the  same  age;  the  needs  of,  and  the 
work  being  done  for,  children  in  cities  and  abroad; 
heroic  work  done  by  missionaries,  teachers,  nurses, 
and  other  social  servants;  home  duties  and  privileges 
of  children;  duty  of  reverence  and  worship. 

(d)  Special  forms  of  expressive  service :  right  home 
attitudes  and  activities;  right  attitudes  toward  mates 


Forms  of  Expression:   Personal  Behavior      181 

in  school  and  Sunday  school ;  fair  play;  animal  rescue 
work;  gifts  of  material  or  money  especially  for  enter- 
prises for  help  of  children;  suitable  acts  of  worship. 

(3)  Junior  Department  (Grades  four  to  seven;  years 
nine  to  twelve). 

(a)  The  general  field  of  expression:  the  home,  the 
class,  the  school,  the  play  group  ('*  gang  ");  the  com- 
munity, the  world. 

(6)  The  native  impulses  to  be  utilized :  restlessness 
and  activity;  hero-worship  and  imitation;  combative- 
ness  and  fighting;  collecting  impulse;  play;  the 
"  gang  "  instincts;  desire  for  leadership,  etc. 

(c)  The  type  of  instruction:  about  heroes;  the 
heroic  extension  of  Christian  work  the  world  over; 
the  great  workers  of  the  local  community  and  how 
they  are  doing  their  work;  the  problems  of  the  class 
and  of  the  local  Sunday  school  and  church;  the  need 
of  money  and  of  services;  a  continuation  of  some  of 
the  teaching  of  the  former  grades. 

(d)  Special  forms  of  expressive  service :  honesty  and 
fairness  in  games;  loyalty  to  the  group  to  which  he 
belongs;  calling  on  or  otherwise  remembering  sick 
or  absent  members  of  the  class;  volunteer  messenger 
service  for  pastor  or  superintendent;  increasing  the 
Sunday  school;  boys'  clubs,  girls'  clubs;  Camp 
Fire  Girls,  Boy  Scouts,  and  the  like;  chorus  choirs  or 
glee  clubs  for  the  Sunday  school;  giving  of  money; 
collecting  magazines  or  other  articles  for  institutions; 
preparing  suitable  gifts  for  some  definite  mission 
about  which  something  special  had  been  learned. 


182  Use  of  Motives 

Toys,  games,  puzzles,  stamp  collections,  post-card 
collections,  dolls,  scrap-books,  and  the  like  for  the 
children  of  distant  communities  may  mean  much 
more  both  to  giver  and  receiver  than  money.  These 
call  for  time,  thought,  ingenuity,  sympathy  and 
imagination. 

(4)  Intermediate  Department  (High-school  grades; 
years  thirteen  to  seventeen). 

(a)  The  general  field  of  expression:  the  home,  the 
Sunday  school  arid  church,  the  community,  the  world. 
In  this  adolescent  time  the  objects  of  service  may  be 
more  remote,  less  concrete,  more  ideal  than  in  earlier 
days. 

(6)  The  native  impulses  to  be  utiUzed:  self-asser- 
tion; leadership;  mastery;  love  of  approval;  intellec- 
tual questionings  and  searchings;  idealistic  and  social 
sympathies;  sex  impulses  and  impulses  of  chivalry; 
worship  of  the  heroic  and  the  Divine. 

(c)  The  type  of  instruction:  of  the  great,  firm, 
reasonable  human  beliefs;  of  the  great  masterful 
men;  of  the  qualities  necessary  to  achieve  real 
success;  of  public  opinion  at  its  best;  of  the  great 
humanity-saving  institutions  and  movements,  their 
ideals  and  work  (as  schools,  churches,  societies  for 
uplift,  missions,  etc.);  of  the  best  expressions  and 
aspirations  of  the  optimist;  of  the  ideals  of  purity  and 
the  single  standard  of  sex  morals ;  of  the  great  barriers 
to  human  progress. 

(d)  Special  forms  of  expressive  service:  special 
Sunday-school  and   church  tasks;    helping  in   any 


Forms  of  Expression:  Personal  Behavior      183 

forms  of  local  community  service,  as  united  charities, 
social  settlements,  Y.  M.  C.  A's.  and  Y.  W.  C.  A's., 
playground  associations,  flower  missions,  civic  im- 
provement associations,  purity  leagues,  etc.;  organiz- 
ing and  leading  the  groups  of  younger  boys  and  girls 
of  the  Sunday  school  in  their  expressive  work;  help- 
ing the  "  kid  brother  "  find  himself;  looking  out  for 
boys  and  girls  of  their  own  age  who  do  not  have 
homes  of  their  own  in  the  city;  helping  support 
some  foreign  enterprise  in  the  mission  field;  talking 
and  leading  in  prayer  in  the  young  people's  societies; 
tithing  the  income  for  benevolent  purposes;  personal 
purity  for  the  sake  of  society. 

(5)  The  Senior  Department  (College  grade:  years 
eighteen  to  twenty-two) . 

The  impulses  here  are  much  the  same  as  in  the 
last  group,  except  that  the  individual,  especially  if  he 
does  not  go  to  college,  begins  to  take  on  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  mature  life.  This  is  an  age  of 
questioning  old  beliefs  and  of  permanent  individual 
adjustments  intellectually,  socially,  and  economically. 
The  thing  needed  to  save  from  catastrophe  at  this 
time  is  a  wise  and  strong  appeal  to  the  expression  of 
those  human  sympathies  and  impulses  to  service  so 
characteristic  of  late  adolescence.  The  teaching 
ought  to  be  related  closely  to  what  the  young  person 
needs  to  know  to  make  him  a  sane  and  efiicient  unit 
in  society. 

The  field  of  service  here  is  the  whole  range  of 
human  need.    Some  particularly  appropriate  expres- 


184  Use  of  Motives 

sions  are:  teaching  classes  of  boys  and  girls,  and 
serving  as  officers  in  the  Sunday  school;  playground 
and  athletic  supervision  for  younger  children;  teach- 
ing English  and  civics  to  foreigners;  singing  and 
entertainments  in  almshouses,  hospitals,  and  detention 
institutions;  any  sort  of  service  for  people  who  are 
shut  in  for  any  reason;  defense  of  the  weak;  rural 
community  service;  cooperation  with  all  kinds  of 
social  uplift  movements;  interdenominational  expres- 
sions of  the  Christian  spirit. 

13.  Conclusion. 

The  writer  has  failed  in  his  statement  of  this  prob- 
lem if  the  reader  thinks  that  it  means  just  a  little 
more,  and  more  vigorous,  preaching  that  the  child 
should  carry  into  practical  life  the  principles  of 
honesty,  truthfulness,  purity,  and  reverence  taught 
in  the  Sunday  school.  The  point  is  that  we  must,  as 
Sunday-school  workers,  help  the  student  to  find  in 
the  home,  in  school,  and  on  the  street  the  actual 
laboratory  and  clinic  of  right  resolves;  and  must 
help  deliberately  to  stimulate  the  specific  motives 
that  will  insure  in  him  an  effort  to  carry  these  right 
purposes  into  effect.  We  should  not  leave  to  chance 
this  last,  crowning  step  of  all  teaching,  —  the  expres- 
sive reaction  of  the  life  to  truth.  We  must  find  a 
way  to  help  him  make  the  right  choices  and  inhibit 
the  wrong  ones;  we  must  guide  him  into  the  satis- 
factions that  come  from  right  action  and  into  the 
discomforts  that  come  from  wrong  action;  and  we 
must  continue  to  do  this  until  we  have  fixed  him  in 


Forms  of  Expression:   Personal  Behavior       185 

the  ability,  the  desire,  and  the  habit  of  making  right 
choices.  In  doing  this  we  must  bring  our  work  more 
and  more  vitally  and  sympathetically  into  coordina- 
tion with  the  home,  the  playground,  and  the  school. 

Topics  for  Further  Study  and  Discussion 

1.  How  can  the  Sunday  school  cooperate  with  the 
home  in  such  a  way  as  to  carry  over  the  impressions 
of  the  school  into  the  choices  and  actions  in  the  home? 

2.  Similar  coordination  of  the  Sunday  school  and 
public  school:    Possibility;    method. 

3.  Similar  coordination  of  the  Sunday  schools  and 
the  supervised  play. 

4.  Find  motives  for  being  truthful.  What  supple- 
mentary inner  tendencies  of  the  child  may  be  used  to 
reinforce  these?  What  are  usually  the  inner  motives 
for  falsehood?    How  meet  and  minimize? 

5.  Treat  similarly  purity;  honesty;  fairness;  in- 
dustry; consideration  for  the  aged. 

6.  Enlarge  in  detail  the  steps  in  section  7  of  this 
chapter. 

Suggestive  Questions 

What  method  does  your  Sunday  school  use  to 
train  pupils  in  giving  for  benevolent  purposes?  Could 
it  be  improved?  A  real  interest  in  the  object  of  giving 
is  more  important  than  the  giving  itself.  Is  there  any 
training  in  this  interest?  Can  you  suggest  possible 
steps  that  would  better  educate  this  generous  atti- 
tude?   Is  it  not  possible  to  make  the  pupils  reahze  that 


186  Use  of  Motives 

we  are  called  upon  to  give  more  than  money?  If  you 
were  seeking  to  get  an  average  girl  of  thirteen  to  be 
willing  to  help  her  mother  more,  what  of  her  internal 
impulses  and  motives  would  you  appeal  to?  What 
internal  tendencies  would  you  probably  need  to  over- 
come? If  you  desired  to  modify  the  fighting  instinct 
of  a  thirteen-year-old  boy,  how  would  you  appeal? 
What  is  the  advantage  of  using  first  one  and  then 
another  impulse  in  such  cases?  Map  out  just  as 
strong  a  program  as  you  can  in  each  case.  As  a 
teacher  how  could  you  plan  cooperation  with  the 
parents  in  these  cases?  As  a  parent  how  could  you 
cooperate  in  these  things  with  the  Sunday-school 
teacher?  Do  you  really  believe  that  much  of  our 
failure  is  due  to  lack  of  cooperation  among  the 
agencies  at  work  for  the  child?    What  then? 

Some  Practical  Problems 

1.  To  secure  honesty  and  fairness  to  playmates  in 
play. 

(1)  The  teacher  must  make  very  clear  and  real  to 
the  individual  and  to  the  class  the  right  and  admirable 
attitude  in  these  things,  citing  inspiring  instances  of 
it  and  its  satisfactions. 

(2)  He  must  secure  the  mental  assent  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  the  class  to  this,  and  a  resolution  to  carry 
it  into  effect  on  the  playground.  Must  get  a  feeling 
of  responsibility  and  pride  in  the  prospect  of  making 
good. 


Forms  of  Expression:  Personal  Behavior      187 

(3)  He  should  conspire  with  the  play  director  to 
give  the  child  a  chance  to  test  himself  out  under 
favorable  conditions.  If  there  is  no  director,  the 
group  of  children  may  pledge  one  another. 

(4)  Children  should  report  results  in  private  to 
teacher  and  parents. 

(5)  They  should  have,  in  addition  to  their  own  per- 
sonal satisfaction,  the  knowledge  of  real  appreciation 
from  teacher  and  parents. 

2.  Is  it  best  to  introduce  new  organizations  into 
the  Sunday  school  for  expression  and  social  service, 
or  should  we  use  the  class  as  the  unit  group?  Your 
reasons  for  your  view. 

References 

Athearn:    The  Church  School  (various  chapters).  The 

Pilgrim  Press,  Boston.     $1.00 
Beard:    Graded  Missionary  Education  in  the  Church 

School.       .75      American    Baptist    Publication 

Society. 
Cahot:    Every-day  Ethics.    Henry  Holt  &  Co.,  N.  Y. 

$1.25 
Diffendorfer:    Missionary  Education  in  Home  and 

School.     $1.50 
Hutchins:     Graded   Social   Service   for  the   Sunday 

School.    University  of  Chicago  Press.    .75 
Kerr:     Care  and  Training  of  Children.     Funk  and 

Wagnalls  Co.,  N.  Y.   .25 


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